The Sister of Angels
by Cristy201
Summary: The story takes place when Crowley has hit his lowest, addicted to human blood. Ely, a girl who lives a spectacularly monotonous life decides to break routine one night and unknowingly meets the king of hell himself. He gives her a chance to trade in the cards life has dealt her, and from that point on, her fate is tied to him.
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't really that my day had been very long or hard, and it wasn't that I felt I needed or deserved a drink, it was simply something that crossed my mind as I was driving home. So instead of returning to my small apartment on the other side of town, I stopped at the local bar for a few drinks. At first I was slightly nervous, walking into a bar for the first time in a long while by myself, but for whatever reason, I felt the urge to push myself out of my comfort zone. I'd never been in this particular bar, in fact I don't know if I'd ever really noticed it's existence before tonight and it certainly wasn't anything to write home about, but there was a comfortable, well-worn feel to the place. The place was fairly well attended considering it was a Wednesday night -though thankfully not crowded- and I found a spot at the bar in good view of a TV airing the most recent basketball game. I was greeted by a husky looking man tending the bar.

"What can I get ya?" He asked in a rough voice, his eyes slightly squinting at me as if he were trying to remember if he had seen me in here before or not.

"A long island, thanks," I replied with the first thing that came to mind. He simply nodded and went back down the line.

I took the chance to look around at the place. The floors were dark wood, worn down in places to the point where you could see beneath the stain and top-coating of lacquer. The kick board around the bar was equally scuffed, along with most of the wood furniture and tables. The counter I sat at was also wood, but it appeared to have been taking care of more carefully then the floors; a fact which I appreciated. Booths with worn red cushions lined the dark walls, and tables with chairs took up the rest of the feasible space on one side of the bar, while the other side hosted two pool tables and a dart board, all with just enough space to maneuver in.

The bartender put down a napkin and placed my drink on it without a word, simply glancing at me again with squinted eyes, and moved to another customer that had just come from playing pool to sit at the bar.

I took a long drink, enjoying the cold taste. It was definitely one of those hot, midsummer nights, and even though the two ceiling fans spun with all their might, they just couldn't quite cut through all of the heat. I started to notice a rising of agitated voices coming from down at the other end of the bar. An older man in a disheveled, all-black suit was heavily leaning on the counter pointing his finger down at the numerous empty and toppled shot glasses in front of him. He was speaking with an English accent in a rather agitated tone to the bartender, who stood back with his big arms crossed and a stoney frown on his face. From what I could hear it sounded like the man was complaining about the speed of service. The bartender cleared the glasses and poured the man a double shot, which seemed to appease him. I chuckled to myself. The man looked almost as out of place in this bar as I did, and being fall-down drunk wasn't helping him much. It was almost absurd how much the scene reminded me of TV shows I had watched: the belligerent drunk at a dive bar, that really isn't something you see as often as TV would have you believe.

The excitement died down and I resumed watching the sports game and drinking. It was when I was finishing my drink and starting to consider ordering another that I heard more commotion from down the bar. Angrier this time. The man was now arguing with the bartender, who had clearly just cut him off. His voice rang over the hubbub of the bar as he yelled something about making sure he would personally escort the bartenders soul to hell. Two new men walked up to the drunk, both in suits and both seeming to come out of nowhere. They leaned in and said something to him, looking around nervously.

"Piss off!" He said, throwing his hand out dismissively, "It's not your job to baby sit me, don't you have _other _business to be handling?" his tone was bitterly agitated, and the two men looked at each other before shrinking away from him.

Now alone and officially cut off, he got up from his bar stool and started making his way down the bar in what I assumed was the direction of the bathroom. I averted my gaze so I wasn't caught starring, but I couldn't help looking again when I heard him stumble into a chair, and as soon as he looked up he caught my eyes. Instantly my brain scrambled to cover up the mistake of getting caught, and I said the first thing to come to my mind.

"Would you like a hand?" He looked at me with an odd, almost puzzled expression.

"Do I look like I need help?" His words were harsh but his tone of voice almost sounded as he were asking an honest question.

"There's no harm in accepting," I shrugged. I had probably made a really dumb mistake saying anything, he seemed like a man who was better left alone. But as I was turning away he stumbled over and sat by me, beginning to speak.

"Oh, let me tell you about the harm in accepting help!" I watched him get onto the stool, though he no longer made eye contact with me, and suddenly felt uncomfortably close to someone I didn't know and who reeked of expensive alcohol. I noticed the bartender keeping a close eye on the man from down the bar, which made me feel better. The man beside me continued, "Let me tell you about so called friends. They help you out once or twice, you think you've got a mutual agreement going, and then soon as the whether changes, they tie you to a chair and torture you. In the name of research! They think they're doing something good for you, but it only makes things worse!" He practically growled the last few words. I had no idea what he could be talking about, but it seemed very personal for him, so I simply replied, "I can't say I know the feeling."

He chuffed, "Lucky you," and then trailed off into silence, staring straight forward, lost in thought or completely zoning out, I couldn't tell which. The bartender came over as I finished my drink.

"He giving you any trouble?" he asked glaring at the drunk man beside me, as if asking for a reason to kick him out for good.

"No, he isn't," I glanced over to see he had come out of his reverie to stare daggers at the gruff man.

"Will you be having another?" The bartender said referring to my drink.

"Oh, no I think I'm done for the night." I replied as I immediately decided I had gotten my fill of spur-of-the-moment adventures to shady bars for the night, or rather, the whole week. I reached into my purse to get my money, but the man stopped me.

"Put it on my bill," he slurred forcefully. I looked at the bartender who just kind of shrugged as if it made no difference who was paying, so I assumed there wouldn't be an issue of the stranger not being able to pay.

"Thanks, that's nice of you," I accepted, though it felt odd that he was doing that for me. Appeased, the bartender took away my glass and I got up to leave. I walked out of the bar awkwardly, I didn't really know what the right social etiquette was for a situation like that. Was I supposed to stay and talk with him since he bought my drink? Was he looking for something in exchange, or was it just an offhanded gesture of courtesy? I got to my car and fumbled for my keys, realizing I was still a little drunk. I was fairly small, and I didn't have much of an alcohol tolerance.

"I didn't scare you off, did I?" a voice from right behind me spoke. I spun around to see the English stranger standing there, though I hadn't heard a single footstep. My heart had nearly jumped out of my throat until I saw him wobble a little bit on his feet and I assured myself he was hardly a threat.

"No," I breathed out an involuntary sigh of relief, "I've got work tomorrow, so y'know, can't stay out very late." I don't know why I felt the need to explain myself, but I felt being honest was warranted.

"I see," he said, looking slightly self conscious now, and without another word, turned and began to walk away. Unfortunately for him, the rocky parking lot and his unsteady legs were not his friends at that moment, and he stumbled forward roughly hitting the ground with one knee but catching himself with his hands before he could intimately meet the earth.

"Christ, are you alright?" I rushed forward as a reflex and put my hand on his shoulder.

"It's Crowley!" He shrugged my hand off and stood up as quickly as he could without sacrificing any more of his dignity. It was obvious that he was only barely standing, and probably wouldn't make it to wherever he lived before passing out along the road somewhere.

"Well, Crowley, it's not often I get such a formal introduction from someone," I stated dryly with a spur of the moment boldness which I'm sure was partially due to the alcohol in my system. "Let me drive you home," I offered, since it didn't seem like anyone else was around or willing to do it.

"I don't need your help or your pity," He tried to straighten up, but only succeeded in stumbling close enough to a car to put his hand on it for balance. He swore under his breath, mumbling something about being a lightweight human.

I could have left right then, drive away without any guilt or regret, he was a grown man who could deal with his own life decisions. He wasn't my responsibility, and he certainly wasn't my friend, I was under no obligation to look after his sorry ass. But that same urge that brought me to this bar in the first place drove me forward. I grabbed his arm and forcibly put it over my shoulders before leading him to my car. He tried to protest, but he was easy enough to move. I got my keys out and opened the passenger side door and pushed him as gently as I could down into the seat before closing the door and getting in on the other side.

"Now, where do you live?" I asked, and he named a high-end hotel that I knew was fairly close by. The drive wasn't long, but my passenger didn't say a word. When I got to the hotel I pulled around back to park and got out to open his door. Crowley slumped halfway out of the open door and I realized he had passed out during the short drive. I sighed in annoyance, but I was going to see this through to the end.

"Hey... hey, wake up," I shook his shoulder, rousing him a little, "I've gotta get you inside, where's your hotel key?" He ruffled around in his pockets with bleary, half open eyes, and produced the card, handing it to me. I took his arm over my shoulders again and hauled him into the hotel. He was definitely heavier now, and as he lost more of his strength it became harder for me to move him. His room key said 429, so I called the elevator and went up to the fourth floor, letting him lean on the elevator railing while I waited. As we reached the floor I grabbed him again, most of his weight was entirely on me now and I was huffing to keep him upright. The elevator doors opened and an unsuspecting older lady came in, meeting us both with a shocked and, frankly, offended stare. I simply shrugged with a sheepish smile and got off as quickly as I could. I found the room and burst in, my arms and legs weren't going to support the both of us much longer.

The room was a total mess, papers and bottles and clothes were strewn all over, and I had to pick my way carefully through the minefield for risk or getting tripped up on anything. I finally got to the bed and let him fall down onto it. He let out a sort of groan as he curled the rest of his body up onto the bed. He looked strangely small on the edge of this luxuriously large bed. I found myself looking around the room, a little shocked at how nice it was. The cream colored walls with their faux-gold trimming gave the room a nice warmth, and the blood red upholstery tied the whole old-timey-wealth look together. I honestly hadn't even known there was such a nice hotel around here. I looked back down at the man I had just hauled up to his own hotel room, suddenly being able to really take in his features up close for the first time. He looked like he could have been fifteen or maybe even twenty years older then me, but he had handsome features. His hair was dark, as well as the stubble along his jaw, which was also peppered with a bit of gray. He looked stern, or maybe troubled, even in sleep he wore a frown on his face. I realized I was staring at a stranger sleeping, and suddenly I felt like I was intruding somewhere I had no business being, so I went back to my car and drove home.

I was more then ready to continue on with my life as if tonight hadn't happened.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ely, are you done with the last table in your section?" My manager Brad asked as he came into the servers ally.

"Yeah, just finishing up everything," I replied.

"Okay, you're cut, clock out when you're done, you wont be closing tonight."

I was happy to get off a bit early this evening since I had been working for most of the day. I was a waitress at a steakhouse in town. Sometimes it wasn't the best job, but it pretty consistently payed the bills. Another waitress, Sophie, walked into the back room as I was finishing up.

"So you're off as well?" She asked me, taking off her servers apron. I nodded in reply. She was a nice girl, and though she was only 20 while I was 29 we got along really well.

"Have any bad customers today?" I asked. She could sometimes be a bit of a pushover, and occasionally a customer would try taking advantage of that, so since I was one of the senior waitresses I tried to look out for her when I could.

"Nope," she shook her head, "it was all good today." She replied as we walked out into the back parking lot. She always surprised me with how well she could bounce back from bad experiences.

The sun was starting to go down, beginning to turn the clouds pink as it sank. A breeze blew warm air off of the concrete that had been baking in the sun all day, and the sound of cicadas could be heard farther off over the sound of cars in the small town. As Sophie and I rounded the corner I noticed a figure leaning on the back end of my car. At first I had no idea who it was, but they were going to need to remove themselves. However, as I got closer I began to recognize the man: it was Crowley. He leisurely leaned on my car, his hands in the pockets of a black over coat which he wore over a black suit. In fact, everything from his silk collared shirt down to his shiny business shoes was black. He was looking straight at me as I walked up to him, Sophie still beside me, her car being parked beside mine.

"Someone you know?" she whispered to me as the man straightened up.

"Yeah, don't worry. Go on home." I gave her a side hug and watched her get into her car as she gave me one last questioning glance before driving off. I turned back to Crowley.

"You know, stalking is a criminal offense these days." I crossed my arms and shifted my weight to one foot.

"It's a small town, not hard to run into someone by chance." He smirked before his face fell back into a serious expression, "And besides, I hadn't gotten a chance to thank you for yesterday."

I had tried all day today to not think about yesterday, but against all my efforts, the activities of the night before was still the most prevalent topic of my mental chatter.

"Don't mention it, really. I was only doing what any other decent human being would do." I shrugged, feeling on edge by the fact that he had tracked me down and was waiting for me at the place I worked.

"Yes, but you saved me from making a bigger fool out of myself then I already had, and I owe you for that." He stated, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. It dawned on me that he must be here to try and repay the favor in some way.

"I didn't do it to get anything out of you. Honestly, consider your thanks as repayment, you don't owe me anything anymore."

"You selfless types make my life _so_ difficult," He growled under his breath, "Listen, I can give you anything you want. Anything at all! Just name it and we can get this over with."

"What do you mean 'anything'? I don't even know you, what puts you in a position to be granting people anything they want?" Something told me that he wasn't lying to me, but that only lead me to be more suspicious. Only a few types of people had that kind of power, and the more I saw from him, the more I was worried that I had gotten wrapped up in some drug lord's illegal business. Crowley looked straight at me with his piercing dark eyes, his brow hanging low on his forehead almost obscuring them.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, mouse, and it's better left unquestioned." he stated in a low voice, taking me off guard with the odd use of a pet name.

"My name is Ely," I stated indignantly, "and what's the catch to asking something of you? You may be doing this because you feel you owe me the opportunity to ask anything of you, but I don't believe for a second it comes without a consequence."

"Well, aren't you a smart one!" He shifted again impatiently, "There is a 'catch', as you call it. By entering into a contract with me, in ten years -though, for you I'll allow fifteen years- I will call on you for something."

"Call on me for... what?"

"Your soul."

I laughed out loud, "You know, for a moment I thought you could actually do something for me, but now it's obvious you're just crazy. What does that even mean? I sign my soul over to you? Hah, I think you've overheated in all those layers of black!" I scoffed, angry that he had fooled me into thinking he was telling the truth, and angry at myself for actually believing. His expression grew darker, but I had had enough, and pushed past him to unlock my car door.

"I don't want to see you again. And I swear, if I do, I'm going to get a restraining order put on you." I opened the door and was about to get into my car when he said something that froze me in my tracks.

"I know about your condition. Lou Gehrig's disease, correct?" I turned around slowly as he continued, "Nasty disease, that one. You probably inherited it from one of your parents. And you probably also watched as that parent wasted away within a matter of years."

"How do you-"

"I can take it away, and even give you fifteen perfect years in exchange. I'm offering you the deal of a lifetime!" He was fidgeting in his pockets and couldn't stand still for more then a few seconds, obviously impatient to seal his deal.

"I don't... I can't just..." I stuttered, completely taken off guard. I hadn't told anyone that, not even my father. I had only just started to notice the first symptoms myself.

"Bloody hell, mouse, you really aren't going to decide right now, are you?" he huffed in exasperation, "Fine, think about it, and when you realize you have nothing to lose, come find me."

He handed me a card. I looked at it and found it was just the business card for the hotel he was staying at, and on the back he had written a telephone number. I looked up to ask him a question and found he was no longer there. I stared at the parking lot in dumb confusion. He had completely disappeared. None of this made sense, and the more my mind tried to unravel things, the more it got tied up into knots over it. It wasn't possible, nothing he had said was possible. I must have stood alone in the parking lot for five minutes still frozen in place, just drawing a complete blank. I finally shook my head, I had to go home, I wasn't going to figured out anything standing here, and the light was slowly starting to fade out of the sky by this point.

I drove to my apartment on autopilot. After dropping my stuff by the door I microwaved leftovers and ate in front of my window, blankly watching the sky turn from shades of blood red to deep purple and finally to royal blue as the first stars started to show up. Everything was so quiet in my apartment. So lonely. I had lived most of my life running away from the thought of having to face this disease again. Crowley was right, I had watched my mother slowly lose control of her body until she couldn't even breath on her own. There was no cure, she simply held out for as long as she could until she couldn't take it anymore. She had told my father and I that when it came to the point where she had to be hooked to machines to survive, that was when she wanted to be let go. She was so accepting of it, so calm knowing there was nothing anyone could do to save her. And when that time came, she was ready to go. But I wasn't. I wasn't ready to see her eyes close for the last time. I would never be ready to watch the machine that gave her breath be turned off. I didn't know how I could survive in a world where I couldn't hug my mother again, or hold her hand, or watch as she smiled at me.

The night my mother died I ran away. I tried to outrun it all. Some part of me believed if I just ran fast enough, or far enough, I could forget it all. But in the back of my mind I always knew there was a chance that the exact thing that happened to my mom could happen to me as well. Less then a month ago, I started to notice an unusual clumsiness, dropping things unexpectedly, or tripping over nothing. Then I started getting muscle cramps, and I just knew I had the disease.

I went to take a shower, trying to clear my head. The only way anything Crowley said could be true was if I believed in the supernatural. But that just wasn't possible. God wasn't real, angels and demons were figments of over-active imaginations, and miracles never happened. But what if it was true? What if there really was something powerful enough to cure the incurable, and Crowley was it? If that was true, then I would have to accept that the contract for my soul was also true. Was I really willing to give up my soul for a slightly longer span of life? I shook my head in frustration, I couldn't even believe I was entertaining these thoughts, they flew in the face of everything I held to be true. And yet there was no denying, if there was any chance, any chance at all that I had found a way out, I had to take it.

I got out of the shower and dried off, wondering what I would do next. So many questions still burned in my brain. I went to get a drink of water, restlessness and agitation making it impossible for me to sit still for long. I filled up a glass at the sink and rested my back on the counter before raising the glass to my lips. And then my fingers stopped working. My grip vanished and the glass of water slipped out of my hand and I watched as it fell to the floor and shattered, sending glass shards and water everywhere. I stared at the broken glass and then at my twitching hand, trying to clench my fingers to no avail. Eventually I was able to move my fingers again, and it was like something clicked in my brain.

I was going to find Crowley and make that deal with him, because in the end he was right. I had nothing to lose.


	3. Chapter 3

I drove straight to the hotel and walked in. The young man working the front desk gave me a sidelong glance, but didn't stop me from walking past the reception area without explaining myself. I let out a little sigh of relief. I was almost sure an upscale hotel like this would have a tighter lock-down on things. I rode the elevator up to the fourth floor again. As I exited, I noticed a strange noise which I didn't recognize at first as music. As I made my way down the hall it became undeniable that the music was coming from Crowley's room. I listened at the door, but all I could hear was what I assumed was some Norwegian death metal song playing. I decided to knock on the door, but there was no response. I tried again.

"Crowley? It's Ely, I've come to talk," I said as loud as I dared to in the hallway this late in the evening. I heard someone's voice from inside the room, but I couldn't make out the words, or even who might have been saying them. I inhaled and held my breath for a moment, considering what to do.

_ Well_, I concluded so myself, _I'm not turning back now, so I'll take that as an invitation in_. I opened the door and walked inside the room.

I hadn't thought it possible, but the room was in even more disarray then the previous night. A small table had been toppled, along with a chair, and a liquor bottle lay on it side, the amber contents having spilled into a large puddle on the wood floor. I noticed women's clothes on the floor, but there weren't any women in the room. The only person in the room was Crowley, who's back was to me. He had a crystal glass in one hand and an expensive bottle of alcohol in the other, and was dancing drunkenly to the incredibly loud music.

"This is the last time I tell you before I peel the flesh from your body, I'm not turnin' down the bloody-" He froze in his sentence as he turned to see me standing in his room. He quickly flicked his wrist, sloshing alcohol out of his cup, but the music suddenly became much quieter. He didn't look good, his skin was pale and dark circles could be seen prominently under his eyes. He looked feverish, with sweat flattening his hair and dampening the collar of his wrinkled silk shirt, and his eyes looked wild. It felt like there was an ominous presence in the room, darkening the bright interior of the room and stifling the crisp night air. It was a feeling that made my hair stand up on end and suddenly every instinct in my body told me to flee.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." I turned towards to door to get out of the room, but without any explanation it slammed shut in front of me. I tried to pull it open again but it had somehow locked in such a way that I couldn't open it from the inside.

"I can't let you leave," the deep, gravely voice of Crowley said from across the room and I turned back to look at him, my heart pounding in my chest. The air felt very thick now, and I could have sworn the lights had dimmed. Crowley's eyes drilled holes into me, a stoney anger showed across his face. That was it, I'd really fucked up this time. It was pretty clear I had stumbled on to him at a very low time, maybe his lowest, and his pride wasn't able to take someone having seen him in this state.

He began to walk towards me and I instinctively backed up towards the door, but I knew there was no way out through the door. My eyes raced around the room but all of the windows had suddenly also closed and it appeared that I was trapped in this room with him.

"H-hey now, you don't want to do this." I put one hand up and tried to side-step away from the door, but suddenly he was right in front of me much quicker then he should have been able to move, uncomfortably close as my back hit the wall. But right when I thought he was going to attack, his bloodshot eyes glazed over and became unfocused. It was the strangest thing, as soon as that happened, the heaviness in the air vanished and the lights went back to being as bright as they used to be.

Crowley turned away from me, almost as if forgetting about my very existence, and scanned the room with his eyes. He took a drink before dropping the bottle from his shaky hands and starting to search through piles of junk scattered around the room. I tried the door handle again, but it still didn't budge. Crowley's search was becoming more frantic. He frustratedly threw clothes and papers across the room looking for something.

"Where in God's damned name did I put it?!" He growled before pausing beside his bed, and he reached down, his back to me, picking up something small I couldn't see. Before I could realize what exactly he was doing, he had sat down at the end of his bed and rolled up his sleeve. The item he had picked up was a large syringe filled with some kind of dark liquid, and he wasted no time in sticking the needle into his arm and shooting up. He breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed visibly, his head lulling to the side slightly and his eyes drooping to half-closed.

"You're a damn junky!" I breathed, happy to finally have something concrete to latch to in an incredibly unreal feeling situation. I walked closer to him, confident that whatever drug he was on had sufficiently subdued his temper. He seemed to see me again, realizing I was still there, and groaned. I crouched down next to him, taking the syringe and looking at it closely.

"What the hell kind of drugs are you on?" I looked at the large syringe, much bigger then anything you'd see a drug addict shooting up with, and not resembling anything I'd ever seen a doctor use.

"Human blood." He replied flatly, almost annoyed, as if I should have known that already. His response took me by surprise.

"Blood? Are you serious?" He simply looked at me with half open, annoyed eyes, "What, are you a vampire? That can't be healthy! Where did you get this blood?" and then a thought crossed my mind, "Do you have some kind of medical condition that you need this for?"

Crowley rolled his eyes, but his lips twitched up at the edges.

"I'm a demon, love." An amused, crooked smile spread across his lips. He blinked, and suddenly his eyes were entirely red, a deep red that glowed in the middle where his pupil should have been. I fell backwards, a chill running through my body as sudden fear made every muscle in my body clench. Then he blinked again and his eyes were back to normal. I stared at him, momentarily lost for words. It wasn't possible, was it? The music, the door, that had been him. Somehow he could manipulate things without even touching them. None of it would make sense unless I believed him. He really must be a demon.

"So... demons are real?" I asked, trying to collect my thoughts.

"Not one to catch on quickly, are you?"

"That means there_ is_ such a thing as the supernatural."

"Obviously."

"And, because you're a demon, you have the power to heal me?"

"I'm not just any bloody demon, I'm Crowley! I have more power then you can imagine." He replied angrily, as if simply knowing his name was supposed to be a huge neon sign flashing "demon" with an arrow pointed down at him.

"And the blood, human blood gets demons high?" I asked, tossing the syringe I had been holding. I wasn't about to take my chances around any mystery blood.

"In a way," Crowley's eyes followed the object across the room. He wasn't shaking anymore, but it was obvious he was definitely addicted to it. I had seen enough addicts to know that for sure. A part of me felt... sorry for him. I should have felt pure repulsion towards him, but I didn't. And though I would never voice it, I suddenly felt a small connection to him. I didn't know what circumstances had led him to be like this, but I could tell he was new to it, and drowning in it.

"Let me help you." The words came out of my mouth involuntarily. Crowley gave me a dark look.

"There's no curing my addiction. You'd be better off trying to find God for all the progress you'd make."

"I'm not saying I can stop you from craving... blood, the only person who can make this entirely stop is you. But I can teach you how to manage it. I've been there myself, and I've had years of experience managing to avoid getting dragged under by my emotions." He stared me right in the eyes as I finished, his expression blank, his eyes searching my face.

"Besides, I'm about to sign my soul over to you anyway, right? Doesn't that kind of bind me to your will or something?" He broke eye contact with me and looked down and to the side, thinking.

"_You're_ trying to make a deal with _me_?" He laughed, "How about I say yes, on the condition that you allow me to use your blood?"

I grimaced. I hadn't considered that as a possibility, and it was dawning on me that I might be walking away from this having signed over my body along with my soul.

"Aw, now, don't look so sour, mouse. You've actually just found a way to get out of this room alive," He smirked, pointing his finger at me and pushing himself off of the ground.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, shocked, standing up as well.

"Well, I can't let you leave after seeing me in this... predicament. Too many people could find you and use this information against me. But, if I take you with me, I've got my own personal vain at my beck and call." He fixed me with a devious smile. It seemed I'd gotten myself tangled up in something entirely worse then a drug lord. I had to be the most unlucky girl there was. I found a cure for a terminal disease, but now I'd either have to sign over my freedom to a demon or see my life end much earlier then I had anticipated. While, granted, I did volunteer myself for demon therapy duty. Self preservation kicked in, finally.

"You'll be keeping me close to you, so I'll be protected, right? I mean, it would be bad if I was harmed and not able to give you what you need. After all, it's in your best interest to keep me as healthy as possible." I crossed my arms, hoping my steady voice could convey a confidence I wasn't really feeling.

"Oh, of course!" He flipped his hand up, and a scroll appeared in it. He let one part of it unravel to the ground, revealing a long list of what I could only assume were the terms and conditions of our contract.

"The short version; I get your blood and soul, and you get healed and protected. And in 15 years I collect on your soul." He produced a pen to sign my name at the bottom. I was surprised at how formal and official the whole thing was, it simultaneously made me feel more secure and more scared. This was real, I was going to sign a supernaturally binding contract. It all made me reconsider if I really didn't have anything to lose, but it was too late now. Something inside of me sensed a roiling danger seething just underneath Crowley's skin. There was no doubt in my mind that he would kill me if he needed to, and this contract, as horrifying as it was, seemed to be the only thing that could protect me now. I took the pen and signed my name.

"Now, that's just the paperwork, required for extended contracts like this. The deal has to be sealed now with a kiss." He rolled up the contract and with another flick, the parchment vanished.

I stood rooted in place, "You can't be serious?"

"Oh, I'm quite serious." he gave me another one of those sideways smirks as he put his arms out in a mock gesture of welcome. Of all the things I had to come to terms with tonight, I found this the hardest to agree to. Maybe all this stuff about contracts and demons and the supernatural just hadn't entirely sunk in for my brain, but a kiss, _that_ was something I could wrap my mind around. It was a close, personal, intimate thing, and I just couldn't imagine sharing that with Crowley. Looking into his mischievous eyes, I knew that he knew there was only one option for me, and it was only a matter of time before I relented.

"Fine, let's get it over with." I uncrossed my arms and let them hang awkwardly at my side, my fists nervously clenched. I could see the triumph play across his face as he waited for me to come to him. I stepped into his reach, and he closed the gap with a firm arm around my waist, his other hand slipping underneath my chin to tilt my head back. And then our lips met, and a warm burst of energy spread its way from my lips down my torso and out to my fingertip, causing my skin to tingle. It felt as if he were literally taking my breath away, and for a moment I was so lightheaded that the only thing I felt was his hot skin against mine.

We broke apart, the energy from our broken connection hitting me like backlash. I held my spinning head with one hand, and looked at Crowley. His expression seemed a little shocked as well, and I wondered if he'd felt the same thing I had.

"Damn, Crowley, does it always feel like that to seal a deal?" He had turned away, straightening his shirt as he walked towards his night stand.

"It's a soul-binding contract, what did you expect?" He replied without turning around. Something sounded off with him, but I couldn't tell what, and I couldn't see his expression with his back turned to me.

In fact, it was getting hard to see anything. My vision was getting blurry. I blinked a few times to try to clear my eyes, but it only made things worse. Darkness encroached on my view. I felt my consciousness slipping through my fingers as I realized I was blacking out. I tried to get to the bed so I wouldn't fall on the ground, but my legs felt like lead. And then everything slipped, and my world was upside down, and then there was nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

There was a slight throbbing behind my eyes that I could feel before I even opened them. As I woke up, my eyelids began to creep open, taking in a blurry, bright world. It took me a second to register what I was even looking at. I was curled up in an unfamiliar bed underneath billowing white blankets. Beside the bed was a simple night stand, and beyond that were large floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out into a densely forested area. There were long strips of blinds that were drawn over the windows, but they were angled to let shafts of light through into the room. I pushed myself into a sitting position on the bed. The room was modestly sized, big enough to comfortably fit the queen sized bed with ample room on all sides, even with the addition of a large wooden dresser in front of the bed. Besides the bed, night stand, and dresser though, nothing else furnished the room. There were two doors to the room, each on different walls in one corner of the room.

I listened for any noise, but the only thing I heard was the faint sound of birds outside, so I got out of the bed and stretched. I pulled back the blinds on the window to get a better view of outside. Wherever I was, it definitely wasn't Kansas where my apartment was. The trees outside were pine trees, and the ground was littered with dead pine cones and needles. Movement up in the branches caught my eye, and I watched as two squirrels chased each other around in circles. The sun was coming in at an angle. I checked my phone, and it was only around 10AM, so it was still morning light that was shining in.

I turned my back on the window and went to one of the doors, the one directly opposite of the window. It opened to a nice looking bathroom tiled with expensive looking stone. On the other side of the bathroom was another door, which was slightly open. I couldn't help but look into the other room. It appeared to be another bedroom, but the curtains were drawn and shut and the entire room was shrouded in a darkness my eyes weren't adjusted to see into. I had a feeling I shouldn't go in, so I went back to try the other door in my room.

This door lead to the main room of the house. The floors were a warm cherry wood, along with most of the furniture, which consisted of a few rustic looking couches and a coffee table situated around a flat screen TV on the wall. The ceiling was very tall, and as I looked behind me, I noticed a balcony area with bookcases and a reclining chair all in front of an ornate glass window. I walked further into the living room area, looking around for any sign of another living soul. Underneath the flat screen a fake fire was on in a fireplace, and to my left was the front door of the small house. In front of me, past the living room, was the kitchen.

The wood flooring turned to smooth gray stone as I stepped inside the spacious kitchen. Shiny pots and pans hung from a rack above the counter and various spoons and ladles were put in a container next to the stove. I was surprised at how untouched the house looked while simultaneously being very livable. It seemed fully stocked with anything you would need. Did a demon need all these things? Or maybe I wasn't in a demon's house at all.

I opened the fridge, feeling hungry. What I found was... confusing, and slightly revolting. There were a few packs of foreign beer, but besides that, it was filled with containers and jars of every manner of inedible thing. There were organs and different animal parts in most of the jars, and others held mixtures of plants and spices I'd never seen before. I definitely wasn't in the house of any ordinary person.

"See anything you like?" A deep and increasingly familiar voice spoke from behind me, and I spun around to face Crowley, who had materialized out of nothing.

"What's all this?" I motioned towards the grotesque sight in the fridge. In two strides he had his hand on the refrigerator door and was closing it while handing me a bag.

"Witch stuff." he replied briskly, to which I raised an eyebrow, "What? I dabble."

"So demons do witchcraft as well?"

"Yes, well, no... I mean not technically, but I do." He went to the living room where there was a liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle and sat down, pouring himself a glass. I followed him, sitting in the chair across from him and looked into the bag I had been handed to find a cheeseburger and fries.

"So that, in your fridge, that's what you eat?"

"No, god no, I said I dabble in witchcraft, not that I eat pig intestines!"

"Then what do you eat?"

"What do I–? Demons don't need to eat." He scoffed, again like I should know this.

"Okay, then take a few minutes to catch me up on all things demon and supernatural so I'm not stumbling around in the dark here!" I lost my temper at him. What, did he expect me to have spent my spare time memorizing all of the superstitious stuff I used to think was bullshit? I was literally just thrown into this, with no warning, and he was expecting me not to ask dumb questions?

"And tell me where we are." I added, remembering my unfamiliar surroundings.

"Alright then. We're in a summer home of mine in a big forest in Colorado that you wont possibly be getting out of without me, so don't try. I'll amuse you and answer your questions, but I'm not giving you a history lesson on all the things that go bump in the night, we'd be here for years." He took a long drink and crossed his legs. He seemed in a good mood, so I decided to try to get as many questions in as possible.

"Okay, explain the witch stuff."

"My mother is a witch, I, therefore, have a knack for witchcraft."

"You have a mother?"

"Of course I do, and a father too, how do you think babies are made?"

"Seriously..." I gave him a flat stare, which seemed to increase his amusement.

"I used to be a human once, some three hundred odd years ago. I died, took a hike through hell and was spat out as a twisted remnant of the soul I previously was. And that, little mouse, is how demons are made."

"So how did you get out of hell?"

"I knew the right demons, who knew the right demon, who set me up with a job as a salesman. Not everyone can cut it as a crossroads demon y'know. Hell isn't just handing out jobs all willy-nilly. Then, of course, I had to get a human vessel so that I could interact with this plane of existence."

"So, how you look right now, that's just the body of someone you possessed?"

"That would be correct. And _then_, throughout the years I played my cards right, and eventually worked my way up to being the king of hell." He flourished his hands out, a cocky smile on his face as if to say _tada!_

"The... _The _King of hell? Like, Lucifer king of hell?"

"No not _Lucifer_, he's long gone, no one really liked him anyway." He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "I'm the new king now." his cocky smile deflated a bit. I sat back in my seat trying to take everything in and wrap my mind around it.

"So, I'm in the presence of the king of hell... and he's addicted to shooting up with human blood." I watched Crowley's reaction closely, but he didn't make a single move except to squint his eyes at me in what I could only assume was frustration.

"And what of you? What's Ely short for?" He quickly changed topics, and it was my turn to shift uncomfortably in my seat.

"My mother named me Eloa, she said it was the name of some angel or something. She was big into that sort of stuff, angels and demons, God and Satan, you know. Mostly the angel part though. I guess she thought if she prayed long enough or hard enough that an angel would come out of nowhere and heal her. Heh, if only she knew all she needed was a demon!" I laughed sarcastically, but couldn't help grimacing at the thought, looking down at my hands which were knotted in my lap, "So when she died, I didn't really want anything to do with any of that, and the name is weird anyway, so I just go by Ely now." I attempted to smooth nonexistent wrinkles out of my jeans and looked back up at Crowley. He was unnaturally still, his expression blank, almost like he was staring right through me.

"What?" I felt my ears getting warm.

"Oh, well, it's just an interesting bit of angel legend that your mother chose to name you after."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm no scholar of angel lore, I'm sure if you could snag one of _them_ they'd give you a much more accurate tale." He shrugged.

"I don't exactly have have an angel on speed dial, so you'll have to do." I pushed.

"Alright, it's _said _that the angel Eloa was born from the single tear that Jesus shed for the death of his pal Lazarus, y'know, before remembering he was almighty and raising him from the dead. Because she was born of pure sorrow, she knew of suffering in a way no other angel did. When she heard of Lucifer and him being cast out of heaven, she felt his pain instead of feeling repulsion like all of the other angels. She felt an insatiable desire to seek out Lucifer and ease his pain and suffering, which lead her to stray far away from heaven. Now, rumor has it that Lucifer saw her when she was created and was captivated by her beauty. Y'know, the kind of haunting beauty only an angel born of sorrow can have. And when she found him, they say Lucifer himself wavered in his hatred for heaven. To hear the angels say it, she was his one chance for redemption. But one thing lead to another, and he ended up dragging Eloa down to hell with him, which, consequently – and you wont hear this in the angels' version – lead to the creation of succubi." he finished and took a drink.

I slowly ate my food while thinking about what he had just told me. It was an oddly charming yet dark story, but not really something I would name a baby girl after.

"I've never heard that story before in my life." I said, thinking out loud.

"I doubt many people have. I myself only happened to stumble on to it by accident once while scouring Hell's libraries for something. If I were to guess, I'd say angels like to forget about those who fall from heaven, and I doubt Lucifer was going to spread around a story of the time he almost repented of his sins for a pretty girl." he smirked, staring over the rim of his glass contemptuously as he took a sip.

"Wait, hell has a library?" I asked, surprised.

"'Course it does. Not like your typical library, but it has a sort of... conglomeration of accounts, if you will. It's not very well organized, granted, but what can I say, not a whole lot of demons care about organization down there." He stared off in thought, mumbling, "I'll have to remember to put someone on that when I get back..."

"Speaking of hell, why aren't you there now, running it?" the question made him visibly tense.

"I've sort of... got my hands tied at the moment..." He didn't make eye contact, and I waited for him to expand on that statement, "You see, there's a demon, knight of hell in fact – nasty piece of work, that one – and she's trying to take hell from me, and I'm laying low till I have the right pieces in the right place to take her out." He stood up suddenly, "Which, incidentally, brings me to my first order of business for you." he pulled out of his pocket a hunting knife, holding it out to me leather-bound handle first. I took hold of it and looked at it more closely. Strange runes were etched into the blade.

"There's only a few things that can kill a demon, and that's one of them."

"I... don't understand."

"Like I said, you're now one of my biggest liabilities, and if I'd been in my right mind I would've simply killed you off yesterday, but now you need to know how to protect yourself from things like me. I can't be around to babysit you all the time, and there will inevitably be a point when Abaddon's men come looking for me and find you instead, and you'll need to be able to kill them."

"Woah, hold up! I didn't sign up for demon slaying duty, I'm not Buffy, I couldn't even tell you the last time I was in a fight!" even the hunting knife felt awkward and clumsy in my hand, and while I had taken a self defense class years ago, non of that gave me any preparation for fending off a demon.

"Well then I suggest you start practicing." his evil smirk flashed across his face again, "Oh, and my boys have already put your essentials in your room, so get comfortable here, you aren't returning home. Feel free to make use of the resources in the loft. And..." he fixed me with a stare that sent a cold shiver down my back, "I'll see you again tonight."

He snapped his fingers and he was gone.

* * *

**A/N: Hey! Finally I get to the chapter that explains the title a little! My inspiration for this comes from a poem called Eloa, or The Sister of the Angels by Alfred de Vigny (Google it, it's a quick read) It's about the angel Eloa, which I directly reference in this chapter, that I randomly found out about and I fell in love with. I'm really happy about the positive response I've been getting from the chapters so far, I can't tell you how motivated it makes me to get new chapters out quickly and steadily!**

**If you ever want to ask anything or find any flaws worth pointing out, you can always PM me!**


	5. Chapter 5

I spent most of the day exploring in and around the cabin. First off, I went into the loft to look at what kinds of books occupied the shelves. It was a nice space, with a comfortable armchair situated towards the window, creating a surprisingly cozy environment. The titles of the books, however, were rather chilling. One read "Disembowelment: The Art of Keeping Your Victim Alive While Spilling Their Guts". Another had archaic runes that I couldn't read pressed into very old leather. When I opened it, hand drawn depictions of horrifically gruesome scenes covered every page, each with a sentence or so in runes underneath. Other books were in a different language, though I recognized the names of a few very old famous novels. I opened one to see lines of what I assumed were poetry, though I couldn't read it. On a shelf all its own was a very long book series titled "Supernatural". While the title seemed to promise a list of creatures and depictions that would help me, the back stated that they were fictional stories about two brothers. I wondered for a moment why Crowley had those books in his small collection before continuing on. I moved to another bookcase and skimmed my fingers across the spines of the books. Some of them seemed very old and worn, while others were relatively new. Some were in foreign languages while others took on a different alphabet entirely. In a third bookcase I finally came across a series of leather-bound tombs which looked useful. It was titled "Of Monsters, Men, and Witches" and upon inspection I discovered an alphabetical list of any creature I would ever need to know about. I also found another large book which seemed to chronicle a history of supernatural events, though it was in some form of old English and very hard to read.

I left the books on the shelves for now, and decided to take a look outside. The air was warm yet crisp, in the way only mountain air can be, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Outside the front door was a roomy porch which stepped down to a rocky driveway. Detached from the house was a small garage building, but there weren't any cars in it. From what I could see looking through the window – the doors were locked – the space was being used for storage, with wooden crates and boxes piled to the ceiling. I walked around the house to the back, but there was just more pine trees for as far as I could see. On the side of the house, however, I found doors which must have lead down to a cellar area. They were unfortunately locked shut, which my curiosity found disappointing, at least until I started to smell a very weird scent seeping through the cracks in the doors. I shivered involuntarily and went back to the front of the house.

A gravel road stretched out from the driveway and wound its way into the trees. I started to follow it, wondering where it would lead. If Crowley said I would get lost in the woods trying to leave, then I couldn't imagine why there was an easy to follow road leading away from the house. I checked the time. If I didn't come across anything, then I'd want to head back with enough time to return before it got dark out. After roughly an hour of walking the road led me to a large clearing before disappearing entirely. I waded into tall brown grass that took advantage of the scarcity of pine trees, and I walked all the way to the middle of the clearing looking for any signs of a road or tire tracks. There was nothing. The trees resumed on the other side of the clearing just as densely as before with no gaps or roads of any kind.

_Well, he wasn't lying, _I thought to myself. I wouldn't be finding a way out of there on my own any time soon, and with the trees being as tall and dense as they were there was no way for me to see anything more than a mile in front of me. I _could_ wander into the forest, but with only the barest knowledge of forest survival, and the miniscule chance I was walking in the right direction to find a town, I could kiss those fifteen years of life goodbye. So I turned back to the cabin. If nothing else, I had at least passed a couple hours outside in the fresh air instead of being cooped up inside. I noticed that I could just barely see the tip of a mountain in the distance, and there was just enough incline to cause me to pant from exertion as my lungs tried to pull the small amount of oxygen out of the air.

As I came back to the cabin I was a huffing, aching mess. There's nothing like a bit of mountain air to make you feel completely out of shape. The sun was just starting to set, and Crowley was waiting on the porch for me.

"Enjoy your stroll?" He grinned at me.

"Oh yeah." I said in a sarcastic tone, bracing myself against the railing of the porch to catch my breath. I peeked up at Crowley, who seemed to just be waiting patiently for me, "were you just waiting for me to get back?"

"It wasn't a long wait." He assured.

"How did you know I would even come back? I could have made a break for it."

"Because I know what you found at the end of that road. And I know you're not an idiot." He smirked before turning to the door and opening it to usher me inside. I straightened up, finally managing to catch my breath, and walked inside.

"First of all," Crowley started as he walked inside and closed the door, "this is to _never _leave you again." He handed me the hunting knife I had left absentmindedly on the counter before going out. "Is that clear?"

"What makes this blade special?" I took the knife; the sheath was made to clip on to a belt so I did that. Crowley predictably sighed.

"Look, those symbols are powerful. There are all kinds of powerful symbols and runes, I'm sure I have a book on it somewhere so I don't have to explain every little detail to you. Now sit." He motioned to the couch, and I sat. He took out a small black bundle from his jacket and placed it on the coffee table in front of me before taking off his jacket and sitting down beside me. His presence beside me was like a stifling pressure, and I couldn't help but remember the night before with sudden clarity.

"Roll up your sleeve." He commanded as he grabbed and unrolled the black cloth in front of him. Inside was a row of ten syringes, and it dawned on me that he was going to draw my blood. I suddenly felt very nervous, but after having rubbed my palms down my pants I rolled the sleeve of my shirt up and faced him as best I could.

He took the first syringe out and placed a hand under my wrist, pulling my arm forward.

"Wait, don't you need a tourniquet to see the vain?" I asked suddenly before he started.

"No, I see it just fine." He slid the needle into my skin. I winced.

"How is that? Because I don't see anything..."

"Demon vision." He replied dryly. He continued to fill the syringe till it was full, and then went on to fill four more.

"Are you filling them all?" I asked, beginning to feel slightly queasy.

"Do you want me to have to do this every other day?" He began to fill a sixth.

"You know, I need some of that for myself." I winced again, looking away and trying to keep my breathing deep and steady.

"I know how much blood the human body holds, and I know _exactly_ how much it needs to stay functional. Don't worry, mouse, I'm not going to bleed you dry." He chuckled.

I didn't know if that made me feel any better, but it was at least slightly reassuring. As he continued with the rest I tried not to look at him while he was doing it. But my eyes would wander around the room and always eventually end up resting on him again. It was easy to look at him while he was like this. His face was quite serious as he focused on the syringe and its content, the crease between his eyebrows was more pronounce, crow's feet visible at the corners of his eyes. All of these little things made him look so... human. It baffled me. How could he be the king of hell and look like this? I mean, it wasn't that he looked unattractive, because he was attractive. He certainly dressed himself well. But he was flawed like the rest of us. And maybe I just felt that because I knew his addiction, but if someone told me there was a king of hell, I would have pictured something much different.

I realized I had been staring for much too long at his face and instead looked down at my outstretched hand, my wrist in his palm. His grip was loose, but I knew that if I tried to pull away it would be firm as steel. As he leaned over my arm, his tie fell forward, brushing my fingertips with each small movement he made. If I extended my arm just a bit more, I could rest my hand flat against his chest.

I snapped out of that line of thinking, turning my head to stare at something in the opposite direction as he finished with the last syringe. He had either seen my sudden jolt and didn't care to comment, or he was too fixated on the blood to notice. It seemed to be the latter. His whole demeanor changed as he held the last syringe, as if suddenly he didn't have time to put up the facade. He stood up with his bundle and began to walk towards his room. I almost let him disappear into the dark recesses of his room, but I was suddenly struck by the urge to stop him.

"Wait," it wasn't very loud, but he heard it, standing in his doorway with his back to me, "do it out here." That made him look over his shoulder, one eyebrow arched sharply. I scrambled to put my thoughts in order.

"Giving you my blood is only half of my job. One of the things we agreed on in our contract was that I would help you work through whatever it is you go through when you inject yourself with human blood. And really, I _can_ help you with this; you just have to trust me." I held my breath after finishing, waiting for his reply, not knowing if he would be angry or not. He turned to fully face me, staring me in the eyes, and I held his gaze as steadily as I could. He was searching for something. While I was sure he was mostly joking about demon vision, it still left me to wonder, what exactly did he see when he looked at me so intensely?

He broke eye contact, looking downwards as if lost in thought, then nodded silently. He moved to sit down at the armchair. I made a mental note of the increased distance between us. He undid the button on the cuff of his sleeve and rolled it past his elbow. He quickly pushed the needle into his arm and drained the contents.

The effects weren't as noticeable this time. He set the syringe down, and relaxed into the chair with his hands knitted in front of him.

"What does it make you feel?" I asked out of curiosity.

"It's not _what_ it makes me feel, it's that I _feel_ at all." He rested the back of his head against the chair, looking down his nose at me with half open eyes.

"And feeling things... feels good?"

"Sometimes, yes."

"What do you mean by that?" I knew where he was going, since I wasn't an alien to emotions, but I wanted to draw him out. I could only take experience from what I myself had gone through, and I didn't know if I had dealt with it in the best way, but it worked for me, and I just hoped it would work for him as well. I waited for a long time before he responded.

"I feel... _everything_. The good, the bad, he mundane. And it's intoxicating. And maddening. And it leaves me so drained I lay down and I sleep. And sometimes when I sleep I _dream_..." he trailed off, forgetting himself. I watched as his eyes lost focus and his brow furrowed. He grabbed another needle after ten or so minutes. This time the effect was more noticeable. I didn't have any idea how blood worked on demons, but it seemed to increase in effect the more he used it, and in terms of drugs, that was an incredibly bad thing. I had no idea if it was even possible for him to overdose on blood, but I felt like it was best if we didn't test those boundaries. I reached across the table and grabbed the cloth which held the remaining syringes. His eyes immediately snapped to my movements.

"I think it would be good to go easy for tonight." I explained, and he nodded his head after a moment. I decided to try and dig a bit further.

"What about having feelings do you enjoy? There are after all a lot of really bad feelings as well." I asked. He thought about it again for a long time.

"I remember tiny things from when I was human. I remember how it felt to dream. Dreams had this way of feeling more real than reality. Sometimes, even with bad dreams, you wanted to go back to sleep and continue to live in them. I can't explain that. But what I can explain is that a demons life is born out of pain, and that's all we know. That's all _I_ know. I live and breathe in pure, raw pain. That doesn't faze me anymore, in fact, it feels good, comfortable. I like how painful human emotions are, I crave it. But it's not enough anymore. I want... I want to feel good, I want to feel loved, I _need_ to be wanted. But how does a wretched creature like me even _begin_ to achieve that?" He looked at me pleadingly, and it hurt to meet his gaze. I wasn't as prepared as I had thought, and I didn't have any answers for him.

"Well, congratulations, you've just stumbled onto one of the biggest questions everyone faces; how to find happiness." I tried to say it jokingly, but it just ended up sounding pathetic and I realized how useless I really was at this. I had no right trying help him up as if I had everything figured out. I couldn't bring myself to meet his gaze anymore, so I desperately thought up an excuse to get away.

"I'm thirsty." I mumbled and stood up to go to the kitchen. I had forgotten, however, that I had given a good portion of blood, but as soon as the room began to spin I was quickly reminded. I tried to put my hand on something to steady myself but there wasn't anything around, and I could feel my legs give out.

I regained consciousness quickly, I had probably blacked out for less than a minute, but I couldn't remember hitting the ground. I opened my eyes to realize I was being held by Crowley who must have caught me before I collided with the hard wood, crouched over me with one knee braced on the ground under my back. One arm cradled my shoulders while his other was around my knees. He looked at me with the most confused and concerned face I had ever seen him make. It was only a matter of seconds, but it seemed like forever before he resumed his usual unflappable expression.

"Well, at least this time I caught you." he stated flatly, and hoisted me up in one smooth movement, taking me by surprise. He took me into my room without waiting a moment for me to say anything and laid me on the bed. I didn't really know how to respond, to I just sat there. He pointed towards my bed stand, apparently struck with the same muteness as I, and there was a glass of water sitting there that definitely hadn't been there before. He moved to the door but before leaving he turned back.

"I suppose... I should take better care of you." he stated, as if it were the first time the notion had entered his head. Before I could say anything, he turned away and closed the door.


	6. Chapter 6

I woke up late the next morning. I got out of bed with a headache and decided to leave the blinds on my window closed. I walked out to the living room and looked around. I couldn't tell if I was relieved or disappointed that the cabin seemed to be empty. I looked into the fridge and found that somewhere along the way all of the weird, disgusting containers had been removed and replaced with the much more common basic human necessities such as milk, eggs, and butter. I also searched the cabinets to find more food staples, along with an odd assortment of cans, as if someone had just gone down an isle in the grocery store and picked cans off the shelves at random.

There just happened to be a box of Lucky Charms, so I grabbed it and made myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast. As I sat down at the counter I noticed a book had been left there. Reading the title I found that it was a book on self-defense, focusing on defending oneself with a knife. I was sure that Crowley had set it there expecting me to make use of it. It reminded me that I had left the hunting knife on my bedside table, so I went and got it before beginning to eat.

I read the introduction as I had my breakfast. I could tell Crowley was serious about me needing to defend myself, and I figured it wasn't a bad idea at all, so I committed myself to learning as much as I could. In fact, I committed myself to learning as much about everything as I could. I didn't know how long I would be staying in the cabin, but I decided I would try to get through as many books in the loft as possible. Whether I liked it or not, I had a feeling I was bound to run into all manner of creatures while I was with Crowley, and I didn't want to have to constantly be asking questions.

I spent the rest of the morning reading through the first lesson in the book and practicing. Around one in the afternoon I decided to go into my room and organize the boxes of stuff that had come from my apartment. I was lucky that there wasn't much in my possession that I really treasured, because while most of my stuff was there, some had been left behind. It seemed, however, that whoever, or whatever, had gotten my things knew what was essential and what wasn't, and there wasn't anything missing that I was sorry to leave behind.

Going through the boxes of my things reminded me of reality. I wondered what my landlord would do when my rent check never came. Was I now just off the grid with all of that? Could someone even come after me for unpaid bills? I started to think of movies I had watched, people going on the run and having to be careful what they did so that the cops never found their trail. I wondered if I should find some way to withdraw all of my money from my bank account so that I wouldn't have to use my card anywhere. It was best to use cash, right? Because a bank account could be flagged, and as soon as I used my card they would know where I was. Or at least, that's what movies and TV had taught me. It was kind of a frightening thing to consider. But maybe I was over thinking things. I was probably just going to be assumed as a missing person, lost in a sea of other unsolved missing person cases.

This led me to think about my dad. I didn't talk to him very often since we were never very close after mom's death. In a couple weeks he might get some notice of me being missing. I wondered if I should try to call him to tell him I was all right... no. I dismissed the thought. It was probably best that no one knew. Maybe it was selfish of me, but a part of me liked the idea of just quietly disappearing out of the lives of everyone I knew.

I felt a small pang of regret for the sudden severing of all ties. It wasn't that I had wanted to leave so suddenly without letting anyone know, but it had happened so quickly, and now it was done and I was stuck hundreds of miles away, and if I was completely honest, I wasn't entirely upset about it.

This was exciting. Everything was new. And for the first time in a very long while, I felt my life had real possibilities. I was no longer stuck in a pointless job just waiting for the onset of a slow, painful death. Most of my life up until this point I had simply been waiting in stomach churning anticipation of my physical deterioration, but now I was cured!

_You'll never live to be fifty _a small voice in the back of my head reminded me. _Well, then I'll make the absolute most out of the next fifteen years _I reasoned with myself, trying not to dwell on the thought. Besides, fifteen years was a long ways away from now. I had no way of knowing what all would happen in fifteen years, and in any case it did me no good to think about it now.

After I had organized my few possessions, I decided to sit on the porch for a while, just to enjoy being outside. It was another clear day, and it was even warmer than the day before. I found myself wondering where Crowley was, and what he did while he was away.

After thirty minutes I got bored and decided to go up to the loft and read for a while.

It got later and later into the evening while I read through a book on supernatural creatures. I started to expect Crowley to pop in at any moment. I would look around suddenly at any given noise expecting to see him standing in the room, and with each passing hours he wasn't here I became more jumpy.

I finally gave up reading when I realized I had gone over the same page three times and still didn't know what it was I had just read. It was dark outside as I went down into the kitchen to make myself supper. I held on to a small hope that he would appear before I went to bed, but as I finished my meal that hope had entirely diminished. I finally accepted that he just wasn't going to show up today, so I took a shower and went to bed.

The next day I woke up feeling better. Crowley was still nowhere to be seen but I resolved not to think about it anymore and decided to take advantage of the beautiful morning and go outside to walk around and explore a bit. I still got winded very easily, but I was doing a little bit better with the thin air. The day was shaping up to be a very hot day with almost no wind. I was content to spend the rest of the day inside, reading books and practicing my self-defense. I was becoming slightly more comfortable with the knife, but I still ended up accidentally cutting my hand at one point. Not bad enough to need stitches, though, which I was thankful for. I didn't even know how to contact Crowley if I needed medical help. Something told me I was pretty well on my own while he was gone.

The day ended without any sign of Crowley once again.

I woke up the next morning to find that the wind had picked up quite a bit, and off on the horizon I saw storm clouds coming in. I continued reading and practicing, but I was beginning to get impatient with Crowley. Was I just supposed to just sit here for days without any indication of when he would show up again?

That night the storm hit, sending down buckets of rain. It let up slightly the next day, and then continued off and on for the next couple of days after that.

During that time I had gotten up the courage to peek into Crowley's room, convincing myself that he wasn't going to appear right behind me just because I had gone into his room. I felt a weird static in the air that made my skin crawl as I walked into the room. Turning on the lights, I found that at first glance the room was fairly normal, though messy. The walls had symbols painted across them in dark paint. Some of the symbols I recognized from a couple of the books I had perused in the loft. They were wards of protection from various different creatures. I wondered if there was something that was protecting against humans, because I could feel a strange force trying to push me out of the room, but I didn't remember reading about anything that could keep a normal human out. Papers had been pinned to the wall around a map of the world that had pins pushed into it in a lot of different spots. Even more papers spilled across the floors, along with very old books. A large, locked chest sat at the foot of the unmade bed. I tried to read some of the papers without disturbing anything, but the handwriting was so quickly done that it left most of the words unreadable. I ended up leaving the room without looking at much, my curiosity mostly quenched.

* * *

It had been an entire week since I had first woken up in the cabin. I still had yet to see Crowley. The food in the kitchen, however, was getting kind of sparse, and I was beginning to wonder if maybe I had been forgotten. I decided that I would keep some of the longer lasting food supplies untouched, and if in a few days nothing had changed, I would take my chances and leave the cabin. I didn't really believe I would have to resort to that, Crowley was under a contract to make sure nothing happened to me after all, but the rational part of me insisted I have a backup plan, just in case.

I had finished the self-defense book, and had gotten into the habit of practicing every day. I was feeling much more confident and was rather proud of myself. After I finished practicing for the day I went up to the loft to continue reading through books. I had learned a lot about different creatures that I used to think were only fiction, and even some rather horrifying ones I had never heard about before. I had tried to read through a book on witchcraft, but it wasn't at all useful since it required insane ingredients that I had no way of getting my hands onto. The book I found most useful was one on runes and warding symbols. I was beginning to memorize different symbols that I felt would come in handy.

I was in the process of reading through an old tome on ancient supernatural history when I heard footsteps somewhere in the house. I looked over the railing from my seat in the loft, but I couldn't see anyone. I set the book down and walked down the steps to get a better look around. Maybe I had just imagined footsteps? I looked out the window to the front porch. It was dark outside, and raining again, but no one was out there. My eyes shifted focus and I looked at my own reflection in the glass, and then I realized there was a figure standing behind me on the other side of the room.

I spun around to see a man I didn't know standing in the living room. He looked unkempt, with dirty hair falling over his forehead. He stared at me coldly from beneath his eyebrows, his eyes entirely black, a demon, and I sensed a very real danger with his presence. My heart was in my throat as stared at him, frozen in place. An evil grin crept across his face and he took a step towards me.

"Stay away from me." I warned, grasping for my knife as my back hit the window behind me. My voice sounded pathetically small and nonthreatening, and did nothing to stop the man from advancing. I held the knife out in front of me.

"You're not the only one with a knife." his grin widened over yellow teeth as he pulled out a long, threatening blade. Without any further warning, he leapt at me, slashing with his knife. I dodged out of the way, adrenaline pumping through my limbs, making me move on pure instinct alone. My brain desperately grasped at shreds of information I could remember from the book, but I couldn't seem to recall a single thing I had been training to do this entire week.

The demon followed up with another quick slash that nearly caught me as I stumbled backwards, my leg hitting the coffee table and sending me crashing to the floor. The demon laughed at my frantic scramble backwards and advanced on me quickly, stabbing downwards.

I rolled out of the way, getting back on to my feet as quickly as I could. The demon took another swipe at my legs as I jumped out of reached. He straightened up as I readied myself for whatever he would do next.

"This is a much more entertaining task then I thought it would be." he sneered in a raspy voice. He lunged at me again, but this time I was able to dodge his attack and get in a swipe of my own. I was just able to cut down on his forearm, but as the blade cut through cloth and flesh he hissed and sprung away.

"Who sent you? How did you find this place?" I demanded, feeling more confident now. My question only seemed to amuse the demon.

"Who sent me? Oh you should know, you've taken up residence in his house after all." his response stopped me cold and I tried to process what he had said.

"Crowley?" I breathed in disbelief. However my enemy had seen my lowered defenses and again struck at me. This time I wasn't quite fast enough to get entirely out of the way of his attack, and the blade cut into the skin of my upper arm. At first I didn't even realize he had cut me, and then I began to feel the intense burning of my split flesh. I stumbled to the side grasping at my arm as white hot pain shot up my neck and down to my fingertips. If it had been my dominant left arm I would have dropped my knife from the sudden pain, but as it was I could still hold my knife firmly.

Every movement was now painful, and I could feel the blood dripping down my arm, but a primal stillness overtook me, and the next time he attacked I deflected his arm, cutting deeply into his wrist and causing him to drop his blade. I kicked the blade underneath the couch, far out of reach. But the demon wasn't deterred yet. He launched himself at me, tackling me to the ground and pinning down my hand that held the blade. He tightly closed his other hand around my neck.

I attempted to pull his hand from my neck, but my cut arm was weak, and he was so much bigger then I was. Blood pounded in my ears as I writhed under him with all of my strength. I was somehow able to get my legs between us and I pushed with all my might, effectively kicking him off of me. I coughed as I struggled to take in air again, getting on to my knees in a crouched position just in time for the demon to lunge at me one more time. I brought my blade up as quickly as I could, and as we collided, his weight against me forced the tip of the blade up into his chest. As my back hit the floor I could hear a sparking and sizzling from where the blade penetrated, and the demons skull lit up from underneath his skin as if his insides were being fried. And just like that he was dead, his heavy body lying on top of me.

I pushed him off of me, his lifeless body flipping on to his back with the blade still stuck into his chest, his eyes wide. The black receded out of his eyes. Blood soaked his dirty shirt and began to pool around him. I backed up to the farthest wall, never taking my eyes off the body.

Sitting on the ground, breathing heavily and clutching my cut arm, I watched. I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest, and each short, gasping breath was like pulling fiberglass through my throat, but all I heard was the ringing in my ears.

I stared at the body, as if my mind refused to accept that it would not be getting up again. Every shaking muscle in my body remained tense in case I had to fight more.

And I sat there, not believing, not thinking, only watching, for what felt like eternity.


	7. Chapter 7

As the ringing cleared from my ears I could hear that the room was silent except for the patter of rain on the windows. I struggled to get my breathing under control, but began to cough when I tried to take a deep breath. Everything had happened so fast I didn't know how to take it all in. A demon had found the cabin, but instead of being one of Abaddon's men, he said he had been sent by Crowley... and he tried to kill me.

The front door handle moved and my head snapped around towards the noise of the door being opened. In walked Crowley, as nonchalantly as if he were returning home like a normal person. He looked at the dead body on the floor and smirked before taking one hand out of his pocket and snapping his fingers. The body disappeared, leaving only the knife to fall into the pool of blood. I watched mutely as he strolled over to the knife, crouched down, and with his fingertips grabbed the bloody handle.

"I believe this is yours." he said, almost as if he were amused, before sliding the knife towards me. I didn't understand at all.

"You... you sent that demon," I broke off to cough harshly, "you sent it to kill me." Almost as if saying the words out loud solidified them in my brain, I suddenly felt that I was still in danger. I grabbed the slippery knife quickly and pushed myself off of the ground while keeping my back pressed to the wall and holding the knife up defensively. Crowley frowned at my move.

"He certainly thought he was being sent to kill you." He stood from his crouch and put both his hands in his overcoat again, facing me full on.

"Good job killing the bugger, I needed a decent reason to rid myself of that one." he said casually, but I didn't lower my blade or relax. He seemed to become frustrated.

"What? I needed to know you could kill a demon, and I needed him to think I wasn't just sending him off to get killed." He shrugged.

"You sent a demon to attack me just to make sure I could kill it?" I breathed, my voice only barely above a whisper.

"He was the sloppiest demon I could find, he didn't have a chance of _actually_ killing you." Crowley insisted impatiently, "I was watching the whole time, in any case, you were never in any real danger."

"He cut my arm. He tried to strangle me! How could you say I was never in any real danger?" all of my fear suddenly became rage. He had sent someone to try to kill me, and even if he knew I would win, that fact stayed the same.

"You didn't warn me or give any kind of heads up! You just disappeared without telling me how long you'd be away, or where you were going, or when to expect you back. I thought you had forgotten me here. And to top it off you send someone to kill me! And the first time I see you in days you act like nothing just happened. I'm bleeding all over the floor for Christ's sake!" I flexed my grip on the blade, suddenly aware of just how much I really wanted to use it on him.

"Put that away," he held up a hand and flicked it to the side and my knife flew across the room out of my grip, "and sit down." he commanded sternly. He took off his wet black overcoat and draped it over a chair before sitting down on the couch. He looked up at me again when I didn't move and simply held out his index finger and curled it towards himself to motion for me to come to him.

I felt deflated after being so easily disarmed, there wasn't any way I would be able to fight against him if he was serious about attacking me. I was reassured by the thought that if he _really_ wanted me dead it was obvious he could have easily killed me already. I figured the contract also protected me, but it was clear that it only protected me from death. He wasn't under any obligation to keep me from every kind of physical harm. I looked at him on the couch, pulling together what little fight I had left in me.

"I'm not giving you any of my blood tonight. If you want it you can lick it off the floor." I stated defiantly. He rolled his eyes.

"Mouse, I'm going to stitch your arm." He motioned with his open hand towards the spot on the couch beside him again. I'm sure if I hadn't just lost a decent amount of blood I would have flushed red with embarrassment, and I grudgingly moved to sit beside him, my gashed arm facing him.

He took off his suit coat and removed a small syringe, medical needle, and thread from his pocket before rolling up his sleeves.

"Expecting me to get cut up?" I scowled at him.

"I brought it just in case." One edge of his mouth twitched up as he rolled up my sleeve. He poked the small needle into my arm by the cut, causing me to wince, but he held my arm lightly so I couldn't pull away. The liquid he injected into my arm immediately began to numb the whole area, and I sighed with relief as the pain began to drain away. With the pain gone from my arm I began to notice the smaller pains. My neck was definitely bruised, and it hadn't stopped being painful to breathe. I could feel a bruised area on my leg where I ran into the coffee table, and other parts of me were banged up from the fall. My entire body felt totally sapped of energy. Needless to say, I was very glad to be sitting down on the soft couch.

Crowley threaded the needle and splashed the wound with some alcohol, and then began the first suture.

"I think I might get queasy." I mumbled as I watched him push the needle through my skin.

"Then don't look." He suggested. I agreed that not looking was for the best.

"How do you know how to sew a wound?" I asked trying to distract myself.

"I've done my fair share of taking bodies apart, sometimes it's fun to try to also put them back together." he laughed as if thinking of a particular instance.

"How reassuring..." I regretted asking the question. Sometimes it was easy to forget that he was first and foremost a demon. I had read that demons were cold, soulless creatures that strove to create chaos and suffering wherever they went, but Crowley was different, and not just because of his addiction. He was dignified. His presence in a room demanded attention. Something about him reassured me that he was a man of his word while simultaneously warning that he was smart enough to find every loophole.

Now that I knew I was in no more danger and had the chance to finally relax, a wave of emotions hit me. Tears began to stream down my face uncontrollably, and I bent my head away to sob into my hand as silently as I could.

"What now? This doesn't hurt, does it?" Crowley asked in surprise, pausing in the middle of a stitch.

"No, no, it doesn't hurt." I said with a shaky voice, trying not to sound like a mess. In all honesty, I didn't really know why I suddenly broke down crying. It was as if an aftershock of the violence had hit me, and with no more adrenaline to hold me together my emotions now gushed out. Intellectually I knew I needed to be strong, I knew I'd likely have to defend myself like this again, that it was either him or me and I only did what I had to do, but emotionally I was entirely unprepared. I had never been so scared in my life.

Crowley finished up with his last stitch and wrapped my arm in gauze. I wiped my face as best I could and pulled myself together.

"Please... don't do that to me again." I looked up at him and he seemed to be confused, and maybe a little concerned, at my emotional state. It was like he didn't quite understand why I was reacting so strongly to the circumstances.

"No, it appears I've gone about this the wrong way." he said while looking at me. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip while he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"You've done well trying to train yourself so far," he continued after a moment, "but it's obvious it hasn't gotten you nearly far enough. You need more real combat experience." my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach with his last words, and he noticed my expression of timid fear.

"Not like _that_." he motioned to the pool of blood, "You'll be sparring with me."

I sighed with relief before remembering he could probably rip me in half even if we were just practicing fighting.

"You'll go easy on me, right?" I asked only half-jokingly.

"Of course." he rolled his eyes, "It totally defeats the purpose of training if I completely overpower you." He got up to pour two glasses of alcohol and offered me one. I accepted the glass and took a sip. It was strong but surprisingly smooth with a rich flavor.

"I don't understand it, you don't eat food, but you have great taste in alcohol." I thought out loud.

"It has the same effect on us as it does for humans. We do, after all, inhabit human bodies; we just have a much higher tolerance for the stuff." He answered.

"I read that demons can heal their host body at a really quick rate." He nodded in agreement with my statement. "Do you have the ability to heal someone else's wounds?"

"You think if I could do that I'd have wasted my time with stitches?" He laughed, "No, I have the power to do many things, but a demon at its core is a creature that rends and destroys, we do not have the power to heal. You'd have to find a witch or an angel for that." He grimaced at the mention of both.

"Angels are real?" I don't know why I was surprised to find that out, I should have guessed that if there were demons then there would also be angels.

"Unfortunately." he took a long sip of his drink.

"I thought you said you had an affinity for witchcraft, wouldn't you be able to try some healing spell or something?"

"I've tried, but it takes a certain... humanity to pull it off." he finished his drink. "Now, it's late." he got up from the couch and began to walk towards his bedroom, "I suggest you get some sleep."

I silently agreed, and went into my room. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until my head hit the pillow, and then I was out.

* * *

In my dreams I was running down dark, cold, stone corridors. My bare feet splashing through small puddles of liquid on the ground. I was passing locked wooden doors behind which I could hear screaming and wailing. I was too afraid to stop to see what was making such tortured sounds, but none of it sounded human. I kept turning corners expecting to find the exit, but there were only more dark hallways. My legs burned from running, and the rocks cut into my feet with each step, but I pushed myself forward. A voice from behind one of the doors called out for me to stop, and I was so shocked to hear a human voice that I did. Out of morbid curiosity I looked through the barred window of the door. A ghastly white face rushed forward out of the darkness to meet me, and I fell away from the door in horror. The face had no eyes, only black pits that sunk into its skull where eyes should have been, and its mouth opened in a crooked smile as it grinned at me with chipped, black teeth.

_You're trapped. You won't ever leave here. You've simply been running in circles._

The voice of the creature ran through my head like a frigged winter gust. I closed my eyes to make everything go away, but when I opened them, I found that I was inside a cell, looking out through the locked door into the hallway. I tried to open the door but my right arm wouldn't move. I looked down in confusion to see that I had no right arm; it had fallen off just below my shoulder. My severed limb was bleeding profusely, and I realized the puddles I was standing in was my own blood. I stumbled backwards deeper into the cell, and then I realized I wasn't alone.

_You're trapped forever._

The white faced creature slid out of the shadows. I tried to get away but there was nowhere to go in the cell. I was trapped in a corner as it slowly came towards me reaching out with bone-thin arms to grab my neck and strangle me. As it gripped my throat with inhuman strength it slowly brought its face closer and closer to mine. I couldn't close my eyes, I couldn't look away, all I could do was stare into those two black pits on its face until its forehead touched mine and my eyes began to be sucked into the creature's empty eye sockets.

* * *

I woke up thrashing in my bed, covered in sweat, my heart racing wildly. It took me a moment to remember where I was as I stared around the room. My right arm ached terribly, and I quickly checked it to make sure it was all there. My arm hadn't fallen off, thankfully, and as I peeked underneath the bloody bandage it didn't look like I had ripped any of the stitches. I sighed with relief but kept my eyes wide open, afraid to close them again and be sent back to that horrific nightmare.

I looked outside the window to distract myself from the imagery that was still fresh in my mind. The sun was out for the first time in days, which I was very thankful for, and it looked to be around mid-day. I breathed deeply, taking in the nice scenery and steadying my nerves.

My door opened slightly.

"Mouse, get up, I'd rather not spend all day training you." Crowley spoke through the door without coming into the room.

"Okay, I'm coming." I answered in a groggy voice, and he closed the door.

I pushed the dream as far out of my mind as I could. Instead, I focused on the thought of practicing my combat skills with Crowley.


	8. Chapter 8

I got out of bed and took a quick shower, removing the bandages on my arm and checking the stitched again. The area was still red and very sensitive, and it was definitely going to leave a scar, but the stitches were done surprisingly cleanly and didn't leave my skin looking like Frankenstein's patch-job. I gingerly washed my arm in the shower but the heat of the water just seemed to make it more painful, so I got out quickly and dried off. I found the roll of gauze on the bathroom counter so I wrapped up my arm again. The more I moved my arm the more the ache spread. I was going to need to take something for that if I was going to effectively spar this afternoon. After getting dressed again I went out to the kitchen to find Crowley fiddling with the oven.

"What are you up to?" I asked, peeking around the counter top to see him pushing different buttons, a frozen pizza sitting in the oven ready to bake.

"Blast it, and here I thought this would be easier than trying to get delivery out her!" he finally managed to hit the right buttons to set the timer on the oven.

"Have much experience with ovens?" I almost laughed, but I kept it to a barely concealed smile. He straightened up and looked over his shoulder at me, one eyebrow raised.

"What? You expect me to keep up with every new kitchen appliance they invent?" He straightened his shirt before leaving to grab a bottle from the liquor cabinet.

"But you figured it out!" I humorously congratulated him, to which he replied with a quick nod towards me and a sarcastic smile.

"That I did. I'd hate to have word get out that the King of Hell couldn't get an oven to heat up."

"I'm going to assume that pizza is for me?"

"No, I'm having a few boys over to watch the game," He sarcastically replied, "Of course it's for you."

"Well, thanks." I suddenly felt kind of weird that he was making food for me. For a week he left me to my own devises, and now that he's back he's making sure I have food to eat?

"Don't mention it... Really, don't mention this to anyone." He took a long drink.

"You wouldn't happen to have any pain medication, would you?" I leaned on the counter and watched him savor his drink. At first I wasn't sure he had heard me, but then he reaching into his pants pocket and took out a white pill bottle and tossed it to me. I caught the bottle and looked at the label; it wasn't anything fancy, just good quality drug store pain killers, and I was happy to down a couple with water.

"You're really thorough." I stated. He simply shifted a bit uncomfortably.

"We might as well do something while you wait for the pizza to cook." he put down his drink and motioned me to grab a knife from the kitchen. I did so, a bit confused, and walked to the living room where he stood. He rolled his black sleeves up to his elbows revealing the white scar tissue of cuts and gashes long since healed. An invisible force rippled off of him and sent the rooms furnishings up against the walls, clearing a large space in the middle of the room. I walked into the middle of the clearing where he was standing.

"First off, I want you to stab me." He stated casually.

"With this?" I held up the kitchen knife. He nodded as if to say _duh_.

"I'm supposed to just... walk right up and stab you?"

"For the first time, yes."

"Wont that hurt you?"

"Barely. I need you to get used to the feeling of sinking a blade into someone. Once you've gotten past the initial fright that you might hurt me, then we can actually progress your skills."

Somehow this felt almost worse than the combat the other night. There wasn't any adrenaline, there wasn't even the feeling of needing to kill or be killed. He simply wanted me to perform the cold, sterile act of driving a knife into someone's body, and something about that didn't sit well in my stomach. But I gripped the knife tightly and raised it till it was level with his stomach. The book I read had told me to go in right below his ribcage and angle up towards his heart. If successful, that would kill a person.

"Are you sure this won't hurt you?" I asked again, stalling.

"Stab me." He replied impatiently.

I swallowed hard and flexed my hand uncomfortably on the handle. I suddenly wasn't feeling very hungry anymore. I started to try to think of a way to get out of this. No, I had to just do it and get it over with. I shifted my feet so that I could get balanced momentum when thrusting forward, but I always stopped just short of actually going for it.

"_Do it_!" He shouted.

As if on cue, I moved forward quickly, grabbing his shoulder and driving the blade into his stomach in one quick, thoughtless movement. I felt the knife cut through flesh and muscle, and I could even feel the top of the blade slide across the bones of his rib cage as it penetrated deep into the softer tissue of his abdomen. Crowley grunted from the force, but otherwise seemed unfazed. I backed up cautiously, waiting for Crowley's response. He pulled the knife out without even blinking, and held the bloody, dripping blade towards me to take it again.

"You're bleeding a lot, are you sure you're alright?" I asked hesitantly while taking back the knife.

"You can't do anything to me that's worse than what I've gone through before." He rolled his shoulders and touched the wound in his chest with his fingertips.

"Good, not deep enough but you had the right idea. Now you're going to try to attack me again, but this time I'm going to defend myself." He changed his stance, turning slightly to the side, his arms held loosely at his sides.

I steadied the blade in my hand again, making sure to grip it tightly in case he tried to disarm me. I lunged at him again, trying to grab and hold back one of his arms so I could hit his torso, but he flipped his arm around quickly knocking off my grip and stepped to the side of my strike, his other hand smacking my side with his open palm, causing me to stumble to the side with little effort. Without a word he resumed his sideways stance. I rebalanced and struck at him again, trying to angle in towards his back. He stepped into my attack before I could get behind him and hit me with his shoulder, again catching me off balance and causing me to stumble backwards. Getting frustrated, I got back up and quickly slashed the knife at him, hoping to cause him to open up to a more lethal attack. He side-stepped my swipe, but I quickly brought the knife back around, switching my grip so that I was now stabbing backwards. He blocked my back-swing and hit my wrist hard with his other hand, causing my knife to fall out of my grip.

"This isn't a movie fight scene; no one is going to let you get away with flashy moves like that." He backed off, allowing me to pick up the knife, along with my pride.

"I told you to go easy on me." I complained.

"I am going easy on you."

"How the hell is this what you consider easy?" I huffed angrily. Crowley's expression became stony and he squared his shoulders. As he raised one hand I knew I had just made a big mistake. An invisible force hurled me backwards, slamming my back against the wall and pinning me there. He turned his outstretched hand upwards as if gripping an invisible ball, and I could feel a pressure take hold of my chest and begin to constrict.

"I'm currently holding your heart in the palm of my hand. At any given moment I have the power to completely and utterly destroy you, and that's without even putting a finger on you. So yes, I'm going easy on you." He relaxed his hand and lowered his arm again. The pressure in my chest subsided and the force pinning me back was released. I stumbled forward slightly and took in a deep breath of air, putting one hand on my chest where a slight pain still lingered.

"Right, King of Hell, crazy demon powers. Forgot about that..." I mumbled, deflated.

"No one is going to go easy on you in a real fight. If you can't manage to land a hit on me at one tenth my strength, then you're not going to last very long. There's only so much I can do to keep you alive." He pushed up his sleeves some more and got back into a defensive stance.

"Come at me again." He commanded. He was, like always, completely correct. I knew it was up to me to push myself to be better, think smarter and more quickly, to take what I had read and put it into practice. It wasn't ever going to be easy again, and Crowley was giving me as much time as he could to assimilate me into this lifestyle, but he didn't have infinite time to ease me into this. Danger had seemed so far away until I was attacked by that demon, and I realized that danger was going to come for me whether I was ready for it or not. So I steadied the blade again, but this time I was thinking two steps ahead.

The training went on for another thirty minutes before the pizza was done cooking and I took a break, but soon after we were back at it. We continued for hours, Crowley drilling into me what not to do during a fight, where to aim to cause the most damage, how to deflect attacks from someone bigger and stronger than me. I even got a few nicks in every once in a while. Each time I was able to land a cut on Crowley I was overtaken by a warring mixture of feelings. First, I was elated to have progressed enough to get past Crowley's defenses, even if only by a little bit. And secondly, I was mortified that I had cut him. I would watch the blood drip down his skin and remember my cut arm and how much pain that caused, and I just couldn't shake how uneasy it made me feel, no matter how many times he tried to desensitize me to it. But after hours of work, I was finally too exhausted to continue, and my shoulder hurt like hell, so I ate leftover pizza and went to bed early after a shower.

* * *

Sometime after I had gone to sleep I woke up. My room was entirely dark still, so I checked the clock which told me it was only a bit past 2AM. I felt oddly restless, so I got up and went to my window, letting my eyes adjust to the dark while looking out into a quiet, moonlit forest. The sky was cloudless and the stars looked closer then I'd ever seen them before. I found myself hoping it would be a perfect day once the sun rose. I had been cooped up in this house for too many days with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

I heard something in the living room which caught my attention. At first my heart raced as I imagined another intruder, maybe a sick new test Crowley thought up to make sure I was always ready for an attack. I moved to my night stand where I left my knife, but upon listening closer, I realized I was hearing dialogue and music from a movie.

Confused, I went to my door and peeked out into the living room. I saw Crowley sitting on the couch, watching the TV. Sad music filled the room which sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. Feeling bold, and not very tired, I slipped out of my room and walked over to the couch. I noticed the last two syringes which used to hold my blood lay empty on the coffee table along with a box of tissues.

"Do you mind if I join you?" I asked, my voice sounding sleepy. He looked up and quickly wiped his face, but if he had been surprised by my presence he didn't show it. He shrugged then nodded silently. I sat next to him, closer then I would have usually sat. I suddenly recognized the movie to be the Titanic, right at the part where the main characters Jack and Rose fall into the water as the ship sinks. I connected the dots and realized that he must have been feeling really emotional and had probably been crying. I chanced a side-long glance, and confirmed that his eyes and nose were red.

I felt kind of... melted. Like the sight of such a strong man being so vulnerable cut straight to the center of my heart and all of my stony defenses fell down from there. I shifted in my seat ever so slightly and our shoulders met. There was something very comforting to me about the contact, a warm energy seemed to draw me in instead of repel me, and it didn't make any sense. Comfort should have been the last thing I would ever feel around a demon, _especially_ the king of hell. But here I was, comfortably leaning against his shoulder, sitting on a couch with him watching the Titanic. And he didn't seem to mind, he certainly wasn't cringing away from me in any case.

So we sat there completely quiet as the movie continued. I realized I was starting to fall back asleep, my random burst of energy disappearing without a trace, but I had already sunk into the couch and everything was so warm and cozy I didn't want to move. I could feel my heavy eyelids closing against my will, and I was having difficulty keeping my head up. I had slumped down just enough in the couch, my head was perfectly level now with Crowley's shoulder. The movie was coming to an end, and I should have gotten up and returned to my bed, but instead I decided, in my half-asleep state, to let my head rest on his shoulder as my eyelids lost their battle with gravity.


	9. Chapter 9

At first I had only become aware that there was a stiff pain in my neck and shoulders. That awareness pulled me from a deep, dreamless sleep. I slowly opened my bleary eyes to the dimly lit living room. Cool blue morning light was coming in through the windows and I could hear what seemed like all of the birds in the woods around the cabin singing at once. The TV in front of me was off, though I didn't remember when that happened. I brought one of my hands up to rub my face, enjoying the silky texture of the pillow I was laying on. I closed my eyes again, enjoying the still morning. I breathed deeply and realized I smelled something different than the usual cabin smells. It was a strange smell of musky cologne, with underlying tones of... sulfur?

I pushed myself off of the surface I had been laying on and realized it wasn't a pillow at all. In fact, I had been sleeping squarely on Crowley's chest. I froze for a moment, but quickly realized he was fast asleep, his head slumped between the arm of the couch and the back cushion. What I thought had been the quiet sighing of wind had really just been his slow, deep breathing. We must have both fallen asleep last night and consequently shifted into this position.

I took the rare moment to just stare at Crowley's face. I had never seen him asleep before, but he looked peaceful, his expression fully relaxed. The crow's feet that touched the edges of his closed eyelids were less pronounced now, and there was no longer a crease between his eyebrows. If he was clean shaven he would have looked years younger, but as it was, his rough facial hair, peppered with gray, reminded me of his age.

_The age of his vessel, _I corrected myself. It was strange to think this wasn't how he really looked. I caught myself wondering for a moment whether I'd still like him the same if I knew what he actually looked like, his true self, not masked by a human's skin. I wasn't really comfortable with any part of that question, so I decided to remove myself from the compromising position against Crowley.

As I straightened myself into an upright position, his arm, which had previously been laying across my shoulders, slipped down my back, sending electric chills up my spine. I was infinitely glad that Crowley was fast asleep, because I could have died of embarrassment. My cheeks flushed with an uncomfortable warmth. I gingerly lifted his hand off the small of my back so I could safely remove myself from the couch without disturbing him, and I stood up as stealthily as possible. I waited for a moment beside the couch, watching to make sure I hadn't woken him up, but he didn't stir an inch. He could almost have looked dead if not for the steady rise and fall of his chest.

Without anything else to do I decided to sit outside and enjoy the sunrise as it finished its journey into the sky for the day. I sat on the front porch, allowing myself to enjoy the crisp morning air and watched as the sky turned from a pinkish-yellow tone to a light blue. A soft breeze brought the rich smell of earth and pine trees to my senses. There wasn't anything that could make this morning better, and I couldn't help but feel enveloped in happiness and contentment. I almost felt like a different person. I couldn't remember a time when I was so at peace with my life, and never before had I really sat down and marveled at the beauty of the world around me.

Inevitably, my thoughts strayed towards the future, but not in the way they used to, filled with dread and denial. Instead, I wondered what excitement lay waiting for me in the future. I almost laughed out loud thinking about it; I was actually looking forward to the future. But nothing exciting was going to happen if I was stuck in this cabin, and really, there was no need to keep me locked away. I resolved to ask Crowley about being able to leave for a bit after he woke up.

As the day slowly warmed around me I wondered what it was that Crowley did when he was away from the cabin. I had often wondered that within this last week, I was surprised I hadn't thought to ask him about it sooner. In fact, there were a lot of questions I wanted answers to – mostly having to do with my future – but there always seemed to be more pressing things to do.

The sky had gotten bright surprisingly quickly since I had sat down on the porch, the sun now peaking over the tree tops. The rays warmed my skin and I could already tell it was going to be a warm day; a perfect day to _not _be stuck in the house. I stayed out on the porch a while longer until I heard what I assumed was Crowley moving around inside, and I decided to make an appearance back inside.

I walked inside to see Crowley standing with one hand braced on the counter, his other hand rubbing his eyes and the bridge of his nose. He was wearing the same clothes still, his rumpled black shirt half untucked from his slacks, the top two buttons undone revealing an uncharacteristically low view of his chest. He was usually so well-groomed it was almost humorous to see him so disheveled.

He looked up as I walked in, rubbing his hand down his face, his eyes looking tired.

"Sleep well?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"That's the blasted thing about sleep, whenever I get it, I can never get enough of it." he responded in a groggy voice.

"Coffee?" I offered as I measured out grounds for the coffee maker. He shook his head.

"Wouldn't have the desired effect." he explained before wandering off towards his room. A moment after he shut his door I could hear the doors of the bathroom close and the shower start. I wondered at how vulnerable his addiction made him. If any of his enemies found him in that state then he'd have a very difficult time defending himself, and maybe even end up being overpowered. I realized that if anything ever happened to Crowley then I would quickly be next, he was the only thing standing between me and a lot of dangerous creatures, and the thought made me shudder.

I poured myself some cereal and began to eat while I waited for Crowley to get done in the shower. I began to formulate what I would ask him when he got out, and how to word my request to get out of the cabin as persuasively as possible. I predicted he would be against the idea of me going anywhere, but I needed to, just for a day. The chances of something bad happening in the couple hours I'd be away from the cabin had to be incredibly slim. Now it was just a matter of convincing Crowley of that.

His shower lasted longer than I was expecting it to, and I had absentmindedly drank myself through an entire cup of coffee by the time he walked back out of his room again.

Once again he was dressed and preened sharply. He wore his usual flawless black suit and shirt, but instead of his usual gray tie, he wore a crimson red one instead. His beard was trimmed up and his hair damply swept over his forehead. His eyes were clear and sharp once more as he fixed me with a searching gaze when he reentered the room.

"Were you waiting for me?" He cocked his head to the side.

"No. Well, kind of? I mean, I had something I wanted to ask you for." I stammered, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Go on."

"I wanted to ask you if I could get out of the cabin for a day. I don't mean, like, to walk around the woods, I mean I want to be back in civilization. I don't care if you magically plop me down in some town half way across the world and pick me back up at a certain time, I just need to be somewhere with other human beings and buildings and stores." I waited a moment for him to reply, watching as he silently contemplated what I was asking.

"Especially if you're going to disappear for another week or more, I'd go crazy if I didn't get some reminder that there is in fact a world somewhere outside of these woods." I continued, hoping the more I said the more persuasive my argument was becoming.

"And I'll have my knife with me, just in case." I finished when he still hadn't replied. He squinted and rubbed his chin.

"I suppose I can't reasonably expect you to stay contently in the cabin at all times." He said almost as if to himself and then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, round piece of copper and handed it to me. I looked at it to see two different and strange symbols carved into each side.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"This cabin is hidden with the use of magic, a trick I picked up a little while back. The only way you can find your way to and from the cabin is if you're carrying this coin."

"Is this the only one?"

"Of course not, I have a spare. If you follow the road with that coin on you you'll shortly come out to a town. I suppose you can wander around there for a bit while I attend to other matters. Though, honestly, I don't see why you'd want to." He shrugged but didn't seem to be too bothered by the request. I, on the other hand, was ecstatic that I was going to be able to go somewhere else for a change. I was also surprised at how little convincing it had taken. I felt proud that he trusted me enough to let me do this.

I took the coin and left to get dressed for the day. I dressed myself in tan shorts with a brown tank-top, putting on a light, white, and short sleeved button-up shirt, the front edges tied together instead of buttoning the shirt. I slipped on my shoes and safely stowed the coin in my pocket. When I exited the house Crowley was nowhere to be seen, so I assumed he must have wasted no time in getting on with his aforementioned duties.

I walked down the driveway, and just as Crowley had assured, I soon came out of the trees to a paved road that lead into town. I excitedly followed the road, thankful that I was able to walk around and enjoy the place before the heat of the day really set in.

It took me a little bit, but I eventually found the main shopping strip of the town. Most of the stores were adorably quaint, small town shops, most of their items either handmade or locally produced. I spent a good while looking around the stores and chatting with the owners, learning all I could about the town and area in general. A lot of people were happy to tell me interesting tidbits about the town when they heard I was new to the area. I sadly didn't have any money on me, but I was keeping a mental list of places I would return to if I ever had the chance to come back with some cash.

By mid-day I had walked my legs sore, and the sun was beating down unabated from overhead. I found a nice park and sat down at a bench wonderfully shaded by a tree and let my feet rest. My stomach began to complain about its lack of contents, but I realized I wouldn't be able to get any food in town due to my lack of money, so I'd have to cut my outing short to go back for food. I sighed, a bit disappointed that I hadn't thought his entirely through, but there wasn't anything for it now.

Well, if I had to go back soon, I was going to at least enjoy this park for as long as my empty stomach would allow. I looked around, noticing the different people walking around the park, some having lunch, others walking dogs. It was, after all, a great day to walk around a park. As I looked around I locked eyes with one stranger, sitting at a bench a bit farther away from mine. It was a middle aged man in a flannel shirt and jeans, and he quickly averted his eyes and looked back down at the magazine he was holding. Nothing about him looked strange, but something about that brief moment of eye contact made me suddenly uncomfortable.

_It was probably nothing_, I assured myself, _you've just been stuck in that cabin so long you're becoming paranoid. _Besides, I had been talking to people all day, it didn't make sense to suddenly be concerned by who saw me now. I had solid reasoning, but I still felt it was definitely time I headed back home.

I got up from the park bench and eyed the man with his magazine one more time before leaving. I was making my way quickly back through the town but I couldn't help but glance behind me. A chill ran through me when I recognized the same man from the park a ways down the sidewalk behind me, traveling in the same direction as me. I began to walk a little faster while also trying to reason away my fears. _It's a small town, it could be a complete coincidence that he's traveling the same way as I am... at the same time. _But regardless, I decided to duck into an alleyway after passing a group of people, hopefully throwing off anyone trying to follow me. I briskly walked through the alley and around the building to another street.

Just before I exited the alley, a figure walked out and blocked my way forward. I didn't recognize the person, but they stood imposingly in front of me, and I could sense the danger wafting off of them like a foul stench. I reached around to the small of my back where my blade was tucked discreetly underneath my white shirt. I wrapped my fingers around the handle but a pair of strong hands arrested my arms before I could pull it free to defend myself.

The man from the park had snuck up behind me and was now pulling me back into the alley as the man in front advanced, cutting off all escape routes. Heart racing, I did the first thing I could think and stomped down on the older man's foot. It didn't have as great an effect as I was hoping for, but it put him off balance, allowing me to pull an arm free, snatching out my blade and cutting him in the process.

He jumped away from me, hissing as his skin sizzled where the blade had bit, his eyes turning pure black. The demon in front of me wavered in his approach now that I was armed and free.

"Now how did you get a blade like that?" he sneered as I backed up to a wall so neither one could get behind me.

"This is definitely the girl." the older demon growled right before lunging at me. I felt like I was back in the cabin facing my first demon, but I quickly struggled to keep a level head. I could take these two, I knew I could if I played it smart. I took the demon's mad charge as a chance to maneuver myself further away from the two, deeper into the alley but now with both of them in front of me. Running wasn't an option, so I faced them both, primed and ready. The older demon rushed at me again, but this time much faster, if I had tried backing up I would have tripped and that would have been the end of it, but instead I stepped into the attack, ducking to avoid his clawing fingers, and bringing my full force upwards, driving the knife into his chest with near textbook proficiency.

A crackling energy burst through his insides, lighting him up with a sizzle before he dropped to the ground, dead. With a sudden surge in confidence I readied my knife to attack the second demon.

"Come at me, you bastard, I dare you!" I boldly challenged.

"What an old fool." the younger demon grimaced angrily at his dead ally, but simply shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. I was confused why the other demon hadn't continued to attack, and I stood for a moment wondering what my next course of action would have to be.

What I didn't see was the third demon come up behind me while I was distracted, and with a single blow to the back of my head my entire world went spinning out of control.

By the time I hit the ground everything had gone black.


	10. Chapter 10

My head was a bundle of throbbing, stabbing pain. At first I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or not because the room was almost entirely dark, but the longer I stared into the darkness the more I was able to make out vague details in the room. I was sitting in a chair in the middle of a small, nearly empty room. When I tried to move I found that both my hands and feet were tightly bound to the arms and legs of an uncomfortably hard wooden chair. The room didn't have any windows and there was only one door which I was positioned directly in front of. There was a sliver of space between the bottom of the door and the ground which allowed a tiny bit of light in. I tried to move again, heaving my body forward in an attempt to move the chair but it must have been bolted to the floor because I was unable to move an inch. The only sound in the room was the sound of my breathing. The air was stale and hot without even the faintest of breezes. I could feel sweat trickle down my face, causing my hair to stick frustratingly to my forehead and getting in my eyes. I had no idea how long I'd been stuck in this room but I could tell I was getting very dehydrated. I began to breathe heavily as a panic set in, gripping my chest like a rope being drawn tighter and tighter with each move I made in an attempt to escape. I was about to cry out for help as I thrashed against my restraints but a speck of sanity whispered against it in the back of my mind. I had obviously been captured by those demons and for whatever reason they wanted me alive, at least for now, and I could reasonably assume that they would be the only ones responding if I called out for help. I remained silent, trying to pull myself together, trying to think of a way out of this situation. Judging by how much sweat I was soaked in I had probably been missing for a few hours. With any luck, Crowley had already realized I had disappeared and was looking for me at this very moment. I was sure he'd find me somehow and get me out of here.

_But what if he can't find me? What if he never comes?_

I couldn't help but consider the worst case scenario. If that were the case, and I really was on my own, then I'd have to figure out some way to escape. How I was going to escape from being tied to a chair and get through who knows how many demons without my knife was a total mystery to me.

As I was trying to think of a way out of my restraints I heard noises coming from beyond the door. The light coming in from underneath the door was disrupted by multiple figures and I could hear the muffled sound of voices. The door handle rattled and then turned. The door was opened and two figures stepped into the room. One of them flipped a switch on the wall and the room was suddenly flooded with a bright light that caused my eyes to sting as I squinted to see.

A man and a woman stood in front of me, neither of which I recognize but both sporting inky black eyes. The man was middle aged, balding, and clearly out of shape. His shirt and pants were so dirty and scuffed up that it was hard to tell what color they were supposed to be. His leering stare made the my skin crawl, and the way he excitedly rubbed his hands together put me even more on edge. The woman on the other hand was much cleaner looking. She was probably in her forties, judging by the fine lines around her eyes and nose. Her dark black hair was tied up tightly behind her head and she wore jeans and a white shirt with a trendy jacket over the top. She stood slightly back from the man with her arms crossed, looking down the bridge of her nose at me with smug contempt. The man came up uncomfortably close to me and sniffed my hair before circling around me chair, eying me like a hyena might eye an injured zebra.

"What do you want from me?" I asked defensively, my voice cracking, betraying my nerves.

"Well, you see," the woman began to talk, her tone was mockingly civil, "I used to have a brother. He was a stupid little thing, and we disagreed on a lot of things, one of which was who we thought should rule Hell. Now, I would think the obvious answer would be Abaddon, but my brother insisted on following that half-wit Crowley. I warned him, and told him nothing good would come from it, and what do you know, he went missing not too long ago. I looked into it, and it wasn't hard to find out that he had gotten a 'mission' from Crowley to kill one little human. But you and I both know how that went down. Crowley used him as fodder for you, didn't he? Now, there's just something that isn't right with that picture. Why would Crowley do that? Ultimately, it doesn't matter why, what's important is that it seems you're the key to getting to Crowley." A wicked grin spread across her face and my heart sank to the pit of my stomach.

"I don't even know what you're talking about." I stammered out, knowing the instant the words left my mouth how fake they sounded. The woman took two strides forward and before I could react whipped her hand across my face, scratching my cheek with her nails as a stinging slap echoed around the room. The force of it left my head spinning. The woman stepped back again absolutely expressionless.

"Don't play the idiot with me, girl. I've already sent word to Abaddon about my catch, and oh will she be pleased with me. I guess my idiot brother was finally good for one thing. Oh, but I can do even better than this. I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I expect you to answer them all. If you don't, well, it won't be pleasant, but if you give me everything I want to know quickly, then your suffering will be slightly shorter. And trust me, you would much rather have my friend here torturing you instead of Abaddon." she waved her hand towards the man who was slowly circling me. His eyes never met mine, they only traveled across my body, no doubt taking in every little detail.

I suppressed a shudder of terror as the woman's words sunk in. What was I supposed to do? They were going to inflict pain on me whether I cooperated or not, but maybe if I told them anything they wanted then it wouldn't be very bad. On the other hand, could I really let myself betray Crowley like that? Maybe I could hold out long enough for Crowley to find me.

The woman motioned to the man, and he nodded, leaving the room to come back moments later with a duffel bag. There was a small, old table in the room with nothing on it, and he pulled that closer to my chair and placed his bag on one end. Opening the bag, he began to pull out all manner of sinister looking tools, and my heart raced as I tried not to imagine what each of them would do to me. He placed each of them neatly onto the table as if they were his most prized possessions. Once finished, he rubbed his hands while mumbling excitedly as he chose a small blade from the line. He turned back to me and looked me up and down, most likely deciding where he would start cutting first, but he waited for his cue from the woman.

"Alright, where is Crowley holed up?" she asked beginning to slowly pace back and forth in front of me. I looked from her to the man, and then to the knife in his hand, and I knew I had to make up my mind, because I would either have to brace myself for every possible kind of torture or quickly tell them anything they could possibly want to know and more to satisfy her.

"I don't know." I replied, knowing a part of me was going to regret this decision very soon, but unable to bring myself to do anything else. The woman sighed and nodded to the man, and he brought his blade across my upper arm, cutting open my previous wound. I gritted my teeth and grunted in pain, trying my hardest not to give them the satisfaction.

"I'll try that again, where is Crowley?" she asked again. I had to pull myself back together and redouble my resolve, but when I did, I looked her in the eye as I answered.

"And again, I don't know." this time the man didn't need any cue before slashing the top of my leg. Pain shot up my leg as the blood quickly started to drip down my calf. I was shaking violently at this point, and I struggled against my restraints desperately. My stomach churned and I thought for a moment I was going to throw up but I forced it back down. I was given a small amount of time to give an answer, but when I didn't reply the man grabbed my jaw forcefully so I couldn't move my head down and cut a slow, searingly long gash across my chest. I screamed out in pain through clenched teeth, trying to pull away.

"Let's try something else, then." The woman said, beginning to sound impatient. The man turned back to place the bloody knife on the table and contemplate the next item he would use. I was in more pain then I had ever thought possible. I could barely breathe through the pain, and my vision was going blurry and unfocused as my body throbbed in sickening waves. I could feel the blood dripping down my chest. So much blood. I wondered how long I could survive. At what point would it be too much? At what point would my body just give up and die?

The man returned with a syringe filled with black liquid and a hand full of wedged, flat little knives. He stuck the syringe in my arm and ejected the contents. An instantaneous sensation of fire spread through my veins. I screamed in pain as I watched my veins and skin become black as the contents spider-webbed outwards. The blackness in my arm stopped being visible by the time it got up to my shoulder, but I could still feel it as it crept into my chest, setting one half of my body on fire from the inside. If the fire wasn't enough, the man crouched down by my hand and grabbed one of my fingers. I couldn't tell what he was trying to do, and then in one quick motion he rammed one of the small flat blades underneath my fingernail. White hot bursts of pain completely blinded me, and for a moment I knew nothing but intense, scorching, all consuming pain. I vaguely recognized the inhuman sound of my screams. But being consumed with the pain, I had no time to even think about a response to the question asked.

Everything after that was an excruciating blur. I yelled and I screamed for them to stop, but I never told them what they wanted, and so they continued. I passed out a few times, and entirely lost track of any idea of time. Eventually, when I was hardly able to even stay conscious, they relented.

"What a pathetic creature, she can't even handle this small amount of pain." I could hear the woman say, though I was unable to even raise my head to see her, frustration was thick in her voice. "I'll allow her a moment to recover her strength, and then we will start in again. Stay here and watch her." I heard as she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her, leaving the man to shuffle around me. He came up to me and ripped out all of the blades from underneath my fingernails simultaneously, causing me to spasm in pain. My throat was so raw I could produce little more than a strangled groan.

I had no idea how long this had been going on for. At first I had been able to bear it purely on the hope that any moment Crowley would show up and save me, but it hadn't happened, and somewhere along the way that hope had been replaced with sheer stubbornness not to go back on my decision. Well, no, it was more than that. Though my brain felt like mush and the only thing I could do was lie, I had to be honest with myself. Somewhere along the way I had become fiercely loyal to Crowley. For whatever good that did me.

I closed my eyes and tried not to focus on all the pain in my body. Instead, I listened. I could hear the man shuffling around his equipment, muttering incoherent words under his breath as the metal clinked together. I could hear air moving through a small gap in the door, the tiniest breeze graced my skin, giving me a slight break from the stiflingly hot air in the room. I could hear the voice of the woman in the other room. She seemed to be talking to someone but I couldn't hear anyone else's voice. I wondered if she was informing Abaddon of her progress, or lack thereof. But I didn't know if I could do this anymore. I was entirely drained, and I had nothing left to hold on to.

A loud clattering came from the other room that sounded like someone had swept the contents of a table onto the floor. The woman was probably pissed. The man stopped muttering and stood still. Everything went quiet for a moment, and then I heard the door open. This was it, I'd either be killed or end up caving, and at this point death was sounding pretty nice. I didn't even have the strength left to lift my head to face it. The man let out a strange growling shriek but was quickly cut off as what seemed like an explosion shook the room.

The person who had come in the door was not the woman, and a familiar face came into view as he crouched in front of me. Crowley took my chin in his hand and tilted my head up. His eyes were glowing red, but the color quickly faded as he looked at me, and then it was like his eyes were a mirror, and I saw all of the pain I felt reflected in them. And then tears blurred my vision as I started to silently sob with relief. He moved his hand up to my cheek, the warmth of his palm on my skin reassured me that it was finally over.

The stillness between us didn't last long though. He stood up and with a quick motion of his hand the restraints that bound me to the chair were snapped, freeing me. He leaned down, pulling one of my arms over his shoulders and then placed one of his arms underneath my knees and the other behind my back, and he picked me up almost effortlessly. I held on to his shoulders as tightly as I could to steady myself and let my forehead rest against his neck. I was able to see around the room again.

There was nothing left of the man who had been my torturer except for a large blood splatter on the wall. As Crowley stepped into the next room I could see that the woman had been ripped limb from limb, and pieces of her were scattered all over. He went into a side door that took us down a long hallway. Five or so bodies lay slumped in the hallway, blood streaked up the walls and was pooled around all of the floor. I could see as we got to the end of the hallway that we were in some old factory compound. Crowley quickly passed a few more bodies on our way out, each one horrifically murdered.

We finally reached the outside when Crowley froze. Confused, I managed to turn my head slightly forward to see what was in front of us.

"Abaddon." Crowley growled. I could feel the deep rumble of his voice reverberate through his chest as he addressed the woman blocking our path. She had bright red hair and wore a nice leather jacket. I could feel her energy pushing out and around her threateningly.

"Crowley! I must admit, I wasn't expecting to find you here. That must be your little pet I've heard all about." her voice was strong and each word seemed edged with daggers.

"Sorry dearest, you're late to the slumber party, and I'm afraid I don't have the time to stay and talk about our feelings." He replied. He gripped me tight and suddenly the entire world went spiraling out of existence as a huge gust of wind hit me and my stomach flipped like the bottom had just dropped out.

As suddenly as it had started, the world came to a jarring halt. My head was spinning too much to look around at first, and I definitely felt like I was going to puke. Crowley gently, but quickly, laid me down on the ground. I could feel grass under my back and when I opened my eyes there was a clear blue, morning sky above me. When I looked around I could tell we were somewhere in the country now, surrounded by sparse trees and wheat fields for as far as I could see. I looked over at Crowley, who was banging on a large steel door. As I watched I could feel the last bit of my strength draining out of me.

I was so tired. The edges of my vision began to go dark. But I couldn't, not yet.

_Crowley_, I couldn't even tell if the word came out of my mouth it was so quiet. But he turned at my call and came back quickly to crouch beside me.

"Quiet now, little mouse." He moved some of the hair out of my eyes, but I couldn't keep them open anymore anyway. The world was going dark, and I tried to say his name again but there wasn't any sound. I wanted to tell him I hadn't told those demons a thing. I wanted to hear that he was proud of me for sacrificing so much for him.

"No, no you don't. Stay with me now, just stay with me." I could hear the genuine panic in his voice.

I wanted to reassure him I just needed to sleep, that was all. Just a deep, long sleep.

And with that I slipped off...


	11. Chapter 11

Crowley watched as Ely's eyes closed, a spike of panic running through him for a moment before he could compose himself again. She was still breathing, and he would be able to tell if she had died because her soul was earmarked for him. But she was still holding on, faintly. He never broke a contract, and he sure as hell wasn't going to brake this one by letting her die. He swore under his breath again as he wished he had the power to heal her himself. Demons could hold broken bodies together and force them to function, but no demon had the power to heal, only an angel could do that on the scale at which Ely needed. And there was only one place Crowley knew of to find an angel quickly.

He stood back up and returned to the door that lead to the Men of Letters bunker, banging furiously on it. He would have blasted the door in if it weren't warded so heavily against demons. The cogs in the locking mechanism began to spin and Crowley stepped back in anticipation, readying himself in case he was about to be met by hostility. The door swung open and Dean stepped through the doorway holding a sawn off shotgun to his shoulder.

"Crowley?" The shock in Dean's voice was apparent, "What the hell?" he noticed the blood that covered Crowley's hands and soaked into his suit, as well as Ely's body laying just behind him.

"I know, I don't call, I don't text, and now I'm showing up unexpectedly at your doorstep. But I need your help right now, so lay down the gun, will you?" Crowley realized how bad this looked to Dean, but he didn't have any other choice. Sam came running up behind Dean, and upon seeing the scene took a defensive posture, reaching for his gun, but Dean motioned for him to stand down. Dean relaxed his aim slightly before giving Sam another unspoken cue.

"What is this?" Dean asked as Sam quickly moved past Crowley to check the girl's pulse.

"I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of time to explain. I was hoping a certain feathered friend of ours would be able to help her." Crowley hated every second of having to come to these three for help, but he was at a loss for better options at the moment.

"She's barely breathing." Sam looked back at Dean, his voice conveying the urgency of the situation.

"Fine," Dean gave Crowley a distrustful glance, "bring her inside." Sam hoisted her body up and carried her through the doorway. Crowley moved to follow him inside but Dean stepped in his way.

"Really now?" Crowley was infuriated by their stubbornness. "I've been in your super secret boys club before, what makes this time any different? We're on the same side as far as I'm concerned!"

Dean locked eyes with Crowley for a long moment, as if searching the demon for any malicious intent.

"Alright, but I swear, Crowley, if you're up to something then you can kiss our little deal to kill Abaddon goodbye." He reluctantly stepped aside to let Crowley through. Once inside the bunker, Dean took the lead after closing and securing the door. The two of them descended the stairs into the bunker, past the old machines and the lit up table that showed a map of the globe. Crowley followed Dean into the living quarters, past the storage room where they had caged him on a few different occasions. His skin crawled thinking about how close he was to that infernal devils trap, but he pushed the thought out of his head. This was the first time he had been here more or less as a guest and not a prisoner.

As they neared the end of the hallway Crowley could feel the grossly pure energy of Castiel permeating the air. He took a deep breath before they entered the small, previously unused bedroom. Ely was laying on the bed with Sam standing off to the side while Castiel leaned over her, his eyes momentarily closed and his palm on her forehead. Crowley fought the foreign urge to forcefully remove the angel's hand from Ely's forehead. He didn't know why part of him felt the need to do that when the rational part of him clearly knew Castiel was Ely's only hope now. Castiel looked up as Crowley and Dean entered the room, his expression turning to rage as his eyes met Crowley. The angel was across the room in a split second, his hands gripping Crowley's blood soaked overcoat.

"What did you do to her?" Castiel demanded, "This girl has gone through horrific torture and has been injected with some form of demonic poison!"

"None of this was at my hands!" Crowley had reached his limit for this fuckery. He pushed Castiel a few feet backwards with his energy, letting his power seep out into the room in a show of aggressive dominance. This wingless angel was not at his full strength, and Crowley knew he could beat him in a fight. In the blink of an eye a silver angel blade appeared in Castiel's hand, but before he could lunge at Crowley, Sam had his arm firmly pinned back.

"Cas, calm down. We can sort this out later, right now this girl needs your help." Sam urged. The crackling energy in the room died away as Castiel stowed his angel blade and turned back to the girl.

"Alright, I need you all to leave so that I can have complete concentration, this might take a while." Castiel nodded at Sam and Dean. The three of them left the room and went out to sit in the main room of the bunker.

"So what is she?" Dean asked as soon as they had sat down. Crowley's nerves were frayed and he was feeling incredibly drained after having fought his way through a small army to get to Ely, and the last thing he wanted was a damn interrogation from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

"What do you mean 'what is she'? Her name is Ely and she's a bloody human, what did you think she was?"

"Okay, well then why are you looking out for the well-being of a human? That just doesn't seem like the Crowley we know and love." Dean stated dryly.

"Listen, she got caught between me and some Abaddon enthusiasts. I figured that was no way for a young innocent to die, so I brought her here. End of story. You two act like I've committed a heinous crime!" Crowley threw his hands up, exasperated.

"That's the thing, Crowley," Sam chimed in, "you haven't done anything wrong, you actually seem to be doing something very good. We just can't help but feel there's some... nefarious motivation behind this." Crowley itched under the two skeptical gazes.

"Damned if I do and damned if I don't." he muttered under his breath before standing up suddenly. He couldn't take willingly staying here any longer as weak as he was. He could feel warding that was etched into the very framework of the bunker burning through the last of his strength. What he needed was to go somewhere safe so he could relax, regroup his thoughts, and tidy up his odd accumulation of emotions. For now he could rest assured that Ely was out of harms way. "If you'll excuse me, I have places to be. But do call when the girl is healthy and I'll take her off your hands."

Crowley quickly made his way out of the bunker. Sam and Dean let him leave, neither of them completely buying his story, but neither of them feeling any compelling need to restrain him either. They simply looked at each other, Dean with a raised eyebrow and Sam with pursed lips, and both shrugged.

* * *

I felt as if my body was floating in a warm pool of light that permeated every cell of my being. It was a sensation I had never felt before but that was increasingly comforting. I would have been happy to stay in that moment forever, but it was quickly fading. I felt like I was starting to slip bellow the surface, the water becoming murky and dark, filling my lungs. I thrashed upwards for air and sat up gasping. At first I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing in the dim lamp light, and nearly panicked as I made out the walls of yet another small, closed-off room. But no, this room was much different. I felt like I had woken up a century behind the times, the room was old and furnished with long outdated styles.

A hand was gently placed on my shoulder which made me snap away from it in shock.

"Please, don't be scared, you're far from danger here." Beside the bed I was laying on was a man with tousled dark hair and sad looking eyes. His voice was low and even, and he looked at me with concern in his unnaturally blue eyes. He wore a weathered trench coat over the top of a simple suit and loose tie, and his demeanor was calm and instantly put me at ease.

"Who are you?" was the first of a thousand questions to make it out of my mouth.

"My name is Castiel. I am an angel. You were gravely injured and Crowley brought you here in the hopes that I could heal you, which I have, for the most part." the man replied in a very matter-of-fact way. I was awestruck for a moment; I was meeting an actual angel! I felt a little light headed, and quickly realized it wasn't because of the pretty angel sitting beside my bed, but because I definitely wasn't back to full strength yet. I eased myself back onto my propped-up pillow, holding my head.

"I wasn't able to entirely heal you, there was a very strong poison in your system that will take more time to fully wear off, but I was able to heal all of the minor wounds." he motioned towards me and I looked down to find my skin smooth and scar-free. I still wore my blood stained shirt and shorts, but there was no longer even the faintest remnants of scars where deep cuts had been. I looked at my hands, there was dried blood underneath my fingernails, but they were entirely intact. A strange, pulsing pain caught my attention suddenly. I looked at my right shoulder to find faint black spiderwebbing lines stretching out from the spot in which the black liquid was injected. It was nothing but a faint throb now, but it served as a razor sharp reminder that every bit of that nightmare had been real. Castiel seemed to notice the pain in my shoulder.

"I don't have the strength to heal you any further, unfortunately, but the energy inside you is very strong and will speed up the recovery process on it's own. In fact, if it weren't for your own energy helping, I wouldn't have been able to heal you nearly as quickly as I have been able to." He looked at me intensely and I couldn't help but laugh a little bit out of confusion.

"I'm only human, it's not like I have some supernatural powers or anything." Now Castiel looked confused.

"But, you have grace in you." He tilted his head to the side, furrowing his brows.

"I have what in me?"

"Grace is the essence of an angel, that which gives it power. Though, your grace is very small, and volatile. What's your name?" I could almost see him piecing together something in his head, though I didn't know why he needed my name.

"Eloa, though I always go by Ely." I explained, for whatever good it did him, "Are you saying I have a piece of the essence of an angel inside of me?" Castiel didn't answer immediately, but stared at me like he was seeing me in a whole new light.

"I heard whisperings, but it was blasphemous to even speak of..."

"Seriously, just tell me what's going on." I was starting to become very worried at this new turn of events.

"Well, there's only really one explanation; you must be the human incarnation of the fallen angel Eloa."


	12. Chapter 12

"The... human incarnation of an angel?" I struggled to piece together what Castiel was saying to me, "How is that even possible?"

"I'm not entirely sure. The angel Eloa ran away from heaven to find Lucifer, and in return he dragged her down to hell. He must have imprisoned her somewhere far away because no one ever heard from her again. I barely knew her, she was so young when I met her, and she had ran away soon after, but she had such an intense purity of heart, an understanding of so many things that were once beyond an angel's understanding. It... could be possible that Lucifer was able to twist her and change her, but never enough to entirely extinguish the purity inside of her. She might have been able to eject that part of herself, transfer it to a human, which would then be passed down from generation to generation. But an angel's grace was never meant to inhabit a human's body without the control of an angel also inhabiting that body. The grace that is inside you should be tearing your body apart, and I can't figure out why it hasn't yet."

As Castiel explained things, it was as if puzzle pieces I didn't even realize had been missing were falling into place, allowing me to see a picture bigger then I had thought possible. This was it, the reason for my disease, the reason all of the women in my family had had died long before there time. This grace that had been thrust into some girl's body thousand of years ago had somehow managed to be passed down through generation after generation, leaving a broken trail of bodies in it's wake. And I would have been among them, if not for Crowley.

"I made a deal... that's why the grace hasn't managed to kill me yet." I said out loud for my benefit as much as Castiel's. His expression went from sudden understanding to horror.

"You sold your soul to Crowley?" His tone was harsh and I shrunk from his anger. I'm sure to an angel a deal with the devil was probably among some of the lowest things a human could do, and Castiel probably thought very poorly of me knowing that I had done that.

"It wasn't just that I sold my soul, I made a deal for my own protection, too. That's why Crowley saved me. I'm sure he would have thrown me away the second he could if it weren't for the deal I made with him." As I said those last words I was surprised at how much they hurt me. I didn't want that to be true, not at all, but I couldn't help but believe it, and saying out loud seemed to cement the truth of the words in my mind.

"I see." Castiel simply replied before going silent. I began to feel my eyes sting, so I looked away for a moment, trying to control the torrent of emotions I was suddenly feeling. I didn't know how to take it all in. Knowing that I was the descendent or incarnation of an angel, and that it was her grace that tore my mother's body apart before being passed to me felt like I was being stabbed in the stomach with a sword. I thought anything that had to do with angels were good things, but it turned out that the biggest cause of all the pain in my life came directly from an angel. And then there was Crowley, and the pain of thinking he would have left me to be tortured if not for our contract, or that he would have rather had nothing to do with me, that pain was even stronger.

"Where is Crowley? And where am I?" I rubbed my face and tried to pull myself back to the current situation.

"I'm not sure where Crowley is, he left soon after he brought you here. I've been in here tending to you for the last day and a half. You're in a safe place that an organization called the Men of Letters created, but that organization has been wiped out, and now my two friends, Sam and Dean, take up residence here." my heart sank when I heard that Crowley wasn't here.

_He's abandoned you in another "safe house" because you're too much trouble_, a part of my mind whispered to me as I tried to push it's voice out.

"Somehow I get the feeling you three aren't exactly friends with Crowley." I stated, and Castiel frowned.

"Not at all, but Dean and him... well, they have a sort of agreement between each other right now."

"So how come you helped me when I'm with Crowley?"

"I suppose Sam and Dean sensed your innocence in the matter, and the urgency in which you needed attention, and I could sense your grace. Even if you were entirely human I would have helped you because you needed my help, but a part of you is... family to me, and I have a personal duty to help you." the angel rubbed his hands together pensively, as if he didn't quite know how he was supposed to be handling me.

"So, that makes you like my half brother or something?" The question seemed to take Castiel by surprise.

"Yes, in a sense. Eloa was the younger sister to many angels, so that position would be transferred down to you." I thought about that for a bit. Half sister to angels. It was kind of mind blowing to think about.

"So who are Sam and Dean?" I changed the subject to something I might be able to wrap my head around more.

"They are hunters, and they are out in the main room." Thankfully I had read about hunters in a few passages of the books I had read at Crowley's cabin.

"Alright, I think it's time I got up and stretched my legs." I announced, pulling the covers off of myself and swinging my legs to the side of the bed.

"Take it slow." Castiel commented as I shakily put weight onto my leg, keeping one hand on the bed to make sure I wouldn't fall. The angel put his hand on the small of my back to help steady. I could feel a light warmth radiate out from where his hand touched, making me feel a bit stronger, as if sharing some of his strength with me. I was able to stand up straight, and I marveled at the extra energy I was getting from the angel.

"How did you do that?" I asked him, motioning to his hand.

"I can share power with you because of the grace inside of you. All angels have a link to each other which allows them to draw on one another when in need."

"That's cool." I stated as he walked me to the door, being careful to keep in contact with me all the way down the hallway.

The rest of the building was styled just like the bedroom, old furnishings and light on the walls which dated the place by at least fifty years. We came out into what I assumed was the main room, which very closely resembled an old library, with bookcases lining the walls and a few rows of long tables set up in the middle. The room had a high ceiling which sloped to a peak. There were two men who looked a bit older then myself sitting at one of the tables, books and old parchments from dusty cardboard boxes splayed out in front of them. The both looked up as I entered the room. Castiel guided me to a seat at the table and I sat down. The instant his hand left me I felt incredibly fatigued again. The angel left the room for reason that were unknown to me, leaving me awkwardly returning the gaze of the two men.

"Hi, I'm Ely." I introduced myself lamely, unable to think of another way to break the ice.

"I'm Dean Winchester." The older looking of the two answered me first. He had short, brown hair, styled up in the front in a way that kept his hair off of his forehead. He was leaning back in his chair with his feat up on the chair beside him, a leather bound book in his hands.

"And I'm Sam Winchester, it's nice to formally meet you." The bigger one, Sam, had longer hair that reached down to his collar, and his features were sharper than Dean's. I also realized they were both brothers. Sam extended his hand to me and I shook it.

"So, I guess you guys run this place?" they shrugged, "Well, I have to thank you for taking me in and helping me, I... wouldn't be here if not for you three." I motioned off to where Castiel had disappeared. Sam and Dean's posture seemed to relax a bit after saying that, and I realized this must be just as odd for them as it was for me. They didn't know if I was really a threat to them or not because they simply didn't know me, which was understandable.

Castiel showed up again carrying a plate with a hot dog on it.

"It's all I could find." He sheepishly handed me the plate, and I realized just how hungry I was. I gladly accepted and began to eat.

"So what has Crowley been up to these days?" Dean asked unexpectedly.

"Dean." Castiel said in a warning matter, as if to say not to push me.

"It's a simple question." He said in a lighthearted tone that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"It's alright, I'll try to be as honest as possible, but the truth is I have no idea what Crowley has been doing. I made a deal with him for my safety, and he took me to a warded cabin in the middle of nowhere and left for long periods of time. He never told me what he was up to." I explained to the three of them, and Dean looked slightly disappointed.

"So how did you end up getting captured by Abaddon's goons?" Dean continued, but more out of curiosity this time than for significant pieces of information.

"I wanted to leave the cabin, so I got Crowley to agree, and they snatched me once I was out."

"So the demons wanted you because of your connection to Crowley then. They must have somehow figured out that he was protecting you for some reason and realized that you were a weakness of his." Sam stated, and I nodded. I didn't really feel like answering any more of their prying questions so I decided to ask one of my own.

"Do you know where Crowley went?"

"Not a clue." Dean replied.

"Well is there any way to get into contact with him?" I looked at Dean who pulled out his phone, hit a few buttons and handed it to me. It was already dialing, and I saw the words _Calling Crowley_ on the screen. I pressed the phone to my ear and waited in tense anticipation. The ringing seemed to last forever, but eventually it turned over to a voice-mail system. I head Crowley's voice but it was only a recording that stated "Too busy inflicting pain to answer. Leave a message." I sighed as my hope deflated. I cut the call off before leaving a message and handed the phone back to Dean, mumbling a _thank you _before drifting into an uncomfortable silence. It wasn't long though before I had to break the silence.

"So what is this place for?" I motioned to the Men of Letters building around us. It was Sam who replied.

"It's essentially a storehouse for records and items of the supernatural nature, a mass accumulation of magical knowledge." as Sam went on to explain a bit more about the different kinds of things they had been able to find here I finished my meal and was beginning to feel incredibly tired. Castiel seemed to sense that and cut the conversation short and escorted me back to my room.

Once I had gotten into the bed I couldn't help but ask the angel a question I had been mulling over ever since he told me I had grace inside me.

"So do I have any special angel powers? Since I have grace inside me and all." I asked, and he thought for a moment.

"If you can learn to wield the grace then, theoretically, yes, you should be able to do certain things with it, but as of now it lays dormant."

"Would you be able to teach me how to use it?" This question seemed to make him think a little harder.

"Yes, I think I could. For now, just relax and try to focus on feeling the grace inside of you. The only way to utilize it is to know it fully." He put a hand on my shoulder before turning to leave the room. I tried to focus for a little while on what he said, but soon found I was much too exhausted to think straight. Other thoughts began to invade my consciousness and I began to wonder about Crowley and where he could be. When was he planning to be back? Or was he not going to be back at all, leaving me in the capable, yet unwilling hands of these three people I had only just met? I decided I'd have to get into contact with him somehow. I remembered reading in a book about a certain way to summon certain demons. I wondered if Sam and Dean had the ingredients I would need to reproduce the process.

* * *

**A/N: I swear the next chapter will be more Crowley-rific! I'd like to address the questions a guest asked: As of right now in the planning, Lucifer wont be making any appearances in the story. This is still loosely following the TV series and wont be making any serious diversions from that for a little while yet.  
**

**ALSO the story will be bumping right up against a specific episode, so if you haven't seen through season 9 then there will be SPOILERS! You have now been warned ;3**


	13. Chapter 13

The next day I woke up very late. I didn't feel particularly tired but the aching in my arm was painfully obnoxious. I got out of my bed, feeling less shaky then the day before, and left the room. I went into the main room but there was no one to be seen. The whole place felt quiet and still as a grave. At least, that is, until I heard a loud clangor coming from the opposite direction of the living quarters. I traveled into the foreign wing of the building and found the entrance to the kitchen from which the noise was emanating. The first thing I noticed was the doors of all the pantries and cupboards were open, displaying the measly amount of kitchen materials in each. The second thing I saw was Castiel, he had taken off his tan trench coat and suit coat, so he was down to just a white dress shirt and his usual dress slacks. He stood in front of a very old looking stove, with a pot of something over the top of it, and it looked as if he was struggling to do something.

"Hey Cas, need some help?" I asked and he turned around abruptly. He relaxed when he saw it was me, but an incredibly sad expression passed across his face.

"Ely, I was going to make you soup, but we only had a can of beans, and this stove thing wasn't heating up the food." he stated in a low voice, his blue puppy dog eyes sadly returning my gaze.

"Aww, sweetheart." The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them, but I pushed on, trying to cover up my embarrassment at saying something so informal to the angel I barely knew. I went up to the stove, and sure enough, there were cold beans in the small pot on the stove. It was an old style of stove so I had to turn on the gas and find a match to light it, and once I showed Castiel how to do it properly, we stuck the beans on and waited at the table while they warmed up.

"So where are Sam and Dean?" I asked to fill the time.

"They left for a small case. They didn't tell me what it was about, only that I needed to 'hold down the fort' and that they would be back in a few days." he responded and I nodded silently. After a moment of silence I came up with another question to ask him.

"What all are angels able to do?"

"Angels are able to do thousands of things, it would take years for me to make a list of every single thing we're capable of." he replied in the most literal way possible, and I realized I was going to have to be much more clear with how I worded things in the future.

"Okay, well, what am I able to do with my grace?"

"You might be able to do everything a full angel can do with their grace, but I'm not sure. You will simply have to explore it more and see for yourself what you are capable of."

"But how do I do that? How do I 'feel out' my grace when I don't even know what I'm looking for?"

"You can't feel it?"

"Not at all, I feel as normal as I always have." when I said that Castiel's brow furrowed in what was becoming a quite familiar confused expression. The beans were boiling so he moved to the stove and turned off the heat. After a moment of thinking, he spoke again.

"Let me look for the grace."

"Go ahead." I allowed, it seemed harmless enough. He reached over to me, his hand open, and put his palm on my forehead. A blue light radiated out of his hand, and his palm was very warm to the touch. I could feel a presence reaching into me, as if Castiel's hand hadn't stopped at my forehead and was pushing down into the depths of my mind. I remembered feeling a similar sensation when I was very little; it was the sensation of trying to put in earrings shortly after my ears had been pierced, and not being able to get the slim metal all the way through my earlobe. That poking, prodding sensation was what I felt, and it took everything I had not to squirm my way out of his grasp. With one big push it was done. I felt a rush of relief, and... something else. Castiel lifted his hand from my forehead.

"What in the world did you do?"

"Your grace was locked down inside of you, which had Crowley written all over it, but it kept your body from being further destroyed buy it. I simply ripped a small hole in the cage, so you can siphon power from it without needing to have full control over it yet. Once you're able to really control it then the cage will break, but you will no longer be in danger of any damage to your body." He explained, and as soon as he said the words I could feel the grace inside of me. It was a tiny presence, almost insignificant, but it was there; a small spark of warmth.

I took a moment to silently marvel at the feeling. I felt... almost whole, for the first time in my life, as if I had found something I had been missing. As far as I knew, I was the only one in my entire family line to have discovered the grace.

"Do all angels feel this warmth?" I asked Castiel.

"Yes, in one form or another. Each angel's grace is unique, there is no substitute for one's own grace." he looked very sad when he said that, and I could tell something was wrong.

"Is there something wrong with your grace?" I wondered out loud.

"Yes," he paused, as if unsure he should explain, but continued "I'm functioning on borrowed grace, and not my own." his answer shocked me

"What happened to your own grace?"

"It was taken from me, and –" before he could finish we heard a loud banging coming from the main door of the Men of Letters bunker. I jumped up, a feeling in my gut telling me who it could be. Racing to the door with Castiel close behind me, I reached the door turned the enormous dead lock and swung the door open.

Crowley stood just beyond the door frame, hands in his pockets, rigid stance, and freshly dry cleaned black suit and overcoat. I was so happy to see him back I nearly threw my arms around him in a hug, but stopped just short when I noticed the intense scowl on his face. Castiel stepped out of the door and put himself directly between me and Crowley, even though I tried assuring Cas that it wasn't necessary.

"So it's Castiel who's been tampering with my deal, now." Crowley growled. I maneuvered to being beside Castiel, and realized none of Crowley's anger was directed at me, only the angel beside me. I almost had to do a double take looking at both Crowley and Castiel. I could see what looked like shafts of light start to radiate out of Cas as he looked ready to fly at Crowley and attack him. On the other side, Crowley looked as if all he wanted was for the angel to come at him, a dark, reddish smoke seeping into the air around him. I realized I was seeing the energy of these two incredibly powerful beings as they geared up to fight, and it was terrifying. I stepped between the two, the only mediator around to stop this. The pressure from both of their energies created a whirlwind of air around me, but it didn't seem to be enough to just step between them, they were going to find a way to duke it out where ever I decided to stand. So, drawing on the small amount of grace I could feel, I raised my arms and pointed a hand at each of them, and pushed outward with my grace as hard as I could.

The mini shock-wave of energy that came out of me was only enough to still the whirling energy around me and slightly push both Castiel and Crowley, but it did the trick. Both beings were shocked enough by me that their energies dissipated.

"Seriously, both of you, chill out!" I yelled at both of them before realizing I was feeling super lightheaded, so I plopped down on the grass so I didn't fall over. Cas rushed up to me to help.

"Don't you dare touch her." Crowley warned menacingly.

"Didn't I just tell you to chill?" I shot back at Crowley feeling a surge of cockiness that could get me killed, "Castiel is only trying to help me, which is what you wanted him to do in the first place, so do me a favor and stow whatever shit you two have against each other." Crowley looked indignant, huffing angrily but standing down. I shrugged off Cas with a _thanks _and stood up.

"You and I need to talk." I addressed Crowley again, and as he looked at me I could have sworn his eyes softened just a bit. Or maybe I was wrong, because now he looked bored, as if he knew what I was going to talk about.

"Could you give us some time alone to talk?" I looked back to Cas, putting a reassuring hand on his upper arm. He reluctantly nodded and stepped back towards the door, but stopped by the entrance to wait. I went over to Crowley.

"Walk with me." I said, directing him towards the long dirt road that ran in front of the bunker. He came willingly, which was a relief.

We walked for a moment in silence. I wasn't sure what all I was feeling towards him, to be honest. I felt surges of gratitude for saving me, but then plummets of sadness that he had left me again and seemed to not care for me. For a moment I chose to forget about it all. The summer day was hot, but windy so that the heat wasn't unbearable. The road was interspersed with trees that provided large chunks of shade. Everything was green, and the sky was a contrastingly brilliant blue, and here I was, walking down an unused, dusty, country road with the king of hell beside me. The whole situation was almost too casual.

"So why didn't you tell me there was grace inside of me?" I decided to ask first, breaking the silence.

"I didn't know what was what it was." he replied in an even voice, and I looked at him sceptically, "Well, I knew it was powerful, and that it was wreaking havoc in your body. I could have pulled it out, but it had a sort of symbiotic relationship, so I contained it instead. I didn't feel you needed to know because whether it was there or not, you would have continued living your life the same way."

"You don't think I had the right to know about that?"

"Whether you did or didn't, the point is that with it contained, you couldn't do anything about it anyway." He replied. I was frustrated that the argument made enough sense that I couldn't really be mad about it anymore.

"So what do you think now that you know I have grace?" I asked and he sort of bristled at my question, looking obviously uncomfortable.

"It doesn't change anything. I'm still under obligation to protect you and you still owe me your life."

"Obligation? Is that all it is to you?" I could feel the heat rising into my face as I asked. He stopped walking and turned to face me. I looked him in the eye. Those dark brown, serious eyes looked back into me.

"No, this is not just about obligation, Ely, but what do you want me to say? I don't have a better answer for you or myself about any of this." his answer was so openly honest that I didn't know how to respond. And really, what _did_ I want him to say? I guess I didn't even know the answer to that myself. But his response made my heart beat a bit faster, and my face a bit hotter, and it wasn't the worst feeling, I had to admit. He looked at me, as if searching my expression, and I couldn't keep looking him in the eye anymore so I turned away.

"So could you not just dump me off at some 'safe place' anymore?" I motioned in the air with my fingers, "If you're going to keep me around then actually keep me around, I can't stand anymore of you telling me to stay put in one place for unknown periods of time. I'm not an animal that can stay in a cage all its life." I felt kind of pathetic asking him, but it was something I needed to say, something that really bothered me and if I didn't get it off my chest then I might explode. Crowley surprised me again by nodding.

"It would seem staying in any place too long is an issue. You can rest assured we wont be doing that again." his reply was less than satisfactory though.

"I don't mean just changing houses occasionally, I mean also allowing me to not be locked inside all of the time."

"No, absolutely not. I'm not allowing you to travel outside again."

"What? Why not?"

"Mouse, did you not just see what happened to you the second I let you out of my protection?"

"That wasn't my fault!"

"I'm not saying it was your fault." he took a steady breath, "What I'm saying is that _I_ need to be more careful." with those words he took the fire out of my righteous indignation.

"But you could stand to be a bit more flexible." I mumbled, a little defeated.

"I tried that, it worked about as well as a bull in a whore house. Until I can think of a better option, you'll just have to stay put where I tell you."

I wasn't entirely OK with everything, but it was more progress, so I nodded my head in mute resignation.

"Alright, are you ready to go?" Crowley asked.

"Let me go back and say bye to Cas first." I insisted, even though Crowley clearly didn't like it.

I traveled back up the road to where Castiel was patiently sitting by the door. I explained that I was leaving, but I wanted to stay in contact. So he gave me his cell number, which I was surprised he even had, and I hugged him goodbye, thanking him for everything he had done for me. I was a little sad to walk away from him, he had been kind beyond measure, besides being the only reason I was alive, and I felt like I owed him more then a quick goodbye. I went back to Crowley, who was staring at the sky, lost in thought.

"I'm ready to go." I got his attention by saying.

"Alright then." He reached out his hand and I took it, and he pulled me closer so that his arm was around my waist and I was safely secured to his side.

"Hold on." he said a moment before we went spiraling through space.


	14. Chapter 14

The air whistled around us and I could no longer tell what was up or down. In a moment that ended as soon as it started, it was over, and I dropped to my knees feeling sick to my stomach. Resisting the urge to puke, and fighting against the spinning of my head, I looked around to take in where we had arrived at. We were inside a hallway, lushly furnished, with cherry wood flooring, red walls, and muted gold trimming. What was it with Crowley and richly colored places? Spaced along the hallway were paintings and doorways and the occasional potted plant. Crowley helped me back to my feet as I regained my composure.

"You'll get used to that." He mentioned.

"Where are we?" I asked him.

"We're in Cleveland, the Humboldt hotel, to be exact, and I have a meeting I need to get to. You'll have to wait here, but look, I didn't leave you anywhere! Don't say I never did anything for you." Crowley raised his arms to motion to the hallway around us, "Now, I'll be back shortly, just stay put."

I watched him as he walked down to the end of the hallway and disappeared through the door, and then I was alone and I didn't really have a clue what to do to keep myself occupied. I wondered for a moment, as I leaned my back against one of the walls, what kind of meeting he was having. No doubt it consisted of other demons. I shivered at the thought, I didn't need any help being reminded that not all demons were like Crowley.

I looked at the door for a moment, and then back down the hallway and my heart jumped as two men appeared out of nowhere. There eyes were inky black and the look on their faces were menacing. Terror and shock froze me in place as they rushed for me, grabbing me and restraining me before I could fight back. A voice in the back of my mind began to scream _not again! _as one of them wrapped a cloth over my mouth to gag me. Before I could really comprehend what had hit me, I was completely restrained and helpless.

A tall red haired woman who also appeared out of nowhere suddenly came into view. Abaddon. She looked at me with a cat like expression, having finally caught her prey, and feeling very satisfied. She put a hand under my chin and lifted my face.

"You're an oddity, now, aren't you. No wonder Crowley keeps you around." she flicked my head sideways and motioned for her two goons to follow her.

I struggled with everything I had to try to escape them, but their inhuman strength held me like iron shackles. I tried to scream, make any noise possible to warn Crowley, but one of them hit me in the stomach, knocking the breath out of me. Abaddon walked through the door into the room with me in tow. The room was large, it must have been the penthouse, and Crowley stood at the head of a table filled with older looking gentlemen, all of whom I could tell were demons. He slowly looked around to the door, and his eyes met mine for a split second and I could see the surprise flash through them. And then he looked at Abaddon and, enraged, turned back to the table of demons.

"You betrayed me? No one in the history of torture's been tortured with torture like the torture you'll be tortured with." he spewed vehemently.

"Relax, everyone. You did the new queen a solid. You are sitting at the popular kids' table. Now, Crowley, let's talk turkey. I know you helped the Winchesters get their hands on the First Blade, yes? And I'm hearing that one of them also has the mark of Cain. All bad news, since the Blade is the one thing that can bring about my -"

"Utter destruction." Crowley cut in.

"To be indelicate." Abaddon continued, "But here's the thing, same goes for you. And once I'm gone, who do you think is next on those cute boys' list? So let's get real. Join me in taking out the Winchesters and that ridiculous Blade, and then we'll deal with each other."

"To be clear, I'll not be joining you ever. Except at your death scene, where I shall burst into song."

"Oh, no? Well I'm sure this girl could help change your mind." She motioned me forwards and the demons took off my gag, but I didn't dare talk. Crowley stared at me with a blank expression for a moment before turning back to Abaddon.

"This is it? This is your big card? The girl means nothing to me." He stated nonchalantly.

"See, I know all about your little problem. Binging on blood, going right to the edge of being human, all of those human feelings..." Abaddon said coyly  
"I'm clean." He insisted.

"And I'm willing to bet that there's a smidgen of humanity in there somewhere."

"Not a chance." Crowley stood firmly behind his words. Though a part of me knew it wasn't true, another part wondered if maybe it was. Abaddon certainly didn't believe a word he said, and with a flick of he hand I began to feel the most awful sensation in my eyes. Pain shot through my face and tears streamed from my eyes. I cried out in pain and brought my hands up to wipe my eyes, and they came away covered in blood. It wasn't tears that were running down my face, it was my own blood. Crowley said nothing, and each second he stood in silence the pain in my head became worse. I was no longer able to see anything, and I dropped to my knees in pain. I felt like my head was being filled up with acid, and any moment now it was going to explode. I lost track of how long I was in pain, I only knew that at one point I was screaming for her to stop and suddenly the pain was over.

"You've made your point. Now stop." Crowley finally resigned, and Abaddon obliged. I wiped the blood from my eyes, feeling nothing but the slight aftertaste of the pain in my head. A small pool of blood had accumulated on the floor bellow me, and I shakily picked myself up. Crowley looked at me with a strange expression and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and crossed the room to hand it to me. Him and Abaddon started to talk plans as I cleaned the blood off my face in a mirror conveniently placed on the wall, ever aware of the two thugs looming behind me.

I listened to the conversation and realized they were going to lure Sam and Dean to this place to kill them. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. Crowley couldn't possibly be going along with this plan, after what they had done for him within the last couple days? I thought they were allies, and now he was plotting to kill them. And to be honest, it was probably my fault. If Abaddon hadn't captured me and used me as leverage then Crowley wouldn't be working with her right now. I felt incredibly guilty at the thought of it all. There had to be something I could do. I had to escape somehow.

Crowley was on the phone with Dean now, telling them the location of the first blade, whatever that was, and telling them where to find Abaddon, spinning it all to seem like he had lured Abaddon here. I started to look for any possible way out. It would be impossible to make a run for it, the two demons were still here watching me closely. There just wasn't any other way out of this place, except if you counted going through the window, but seeing as we were in the penthouse, that was probably the fastest way to die. Crowley was in a tough spot, as well. Maybe it would be best for both of us if I just tried to stay put.

"Now, wasn't that quick and painless?" Abaddon said to Crowley after he got off the phone, "Put the girl in the room." She turned to her two demons and pointed at a large double doorway. The men grabbed my arms and escorted me roughly into the room and shut the door firmly behind me. I guess this was where I'd have to wait till everything went down.

There was a large king sized bed that took up half of the room, and at the end of it was a padded bench. I noticed there were doors that lead out to a balcony, but when I tried the handles they were locked, and the balcony looked small with no where to go but down. And it was a _long_ way to go down.

There were long red drapes pulled over most of the windows, which I pulled back to let in some more light.

All in all, this was definitely the best room I'd been imprisoned in. I looked at the handkerchief Crowley had given me. It was a very dark purple color, now stained with blood, but it was soft silk. I held it too my nose. It smelled like Crowley.

* * *

I waited for hours for something to happen and nothing ever did. But the sun went down and I needed to sleep, so I decided to lay down on the bed for a little while. I was fast asleep till morning came. I woke up feeling groggy, something about sleeping with hellishly strong guards right outside your door makes sleep just a tad restless. I got up and tried the doors, but nothing would budge so I started to pace the room. There was absolutely nothing to do in here. After a few minutes I heard voices outside the door. It sounded like Crowley and Abaddon were talking again.

I put my ear to the door and tried to hear what they were saying. A loud bang from the other room shook the door and I jumped back in shock as my mind raced to think of what could have made that noise. It sounded like a gun shot and I went back to the door and yanked on the handle, and when that didn't work, I pounded on the door.

"What the hell's going on!" I frantically called through the door. I heard a low grunt and my heart raced as I wondered what had happened to Crowley.

"Everything's alright Mouse." Crowley called back, but his voice sounded strained. Had he been shot? I huffed in frustration. It was infuriating to be locked up in here unable to do anything. I began to pace the room agitatedly, trying not to think of all the possible reasons why there was a gun shot and why it was directed at Crowley. All was silent as minutes ticked by. I worried the hem of my shirt between my fingers.

Thirty more minutes passed by before I heard another sound, and it wasn't a voice, but a door, opening slowly, cautiously, footsteps stealthily crossing across the floor into the next room. As I strained my hearing at the door I realized I'd never been able to hear so much before, and briefly wondered if this was because of my grace.

"Crowley?" A voice said

"Hello, Dean. Love the crazy bloodlust in your eyes. Let's not waste time. I'll take you to Abaddon. It's not far." as Crowley responded my heart raced. I knew it was a trap and someone had to stop it. I heard Abaddon start to speak.

"A boy and his Blade. And still no match for the new queen. So, first, you'll die... Painfully. And then Crowley will watch his little pet die, and then the king himself, then I'll destroy the blade. That's quite a to-do list."

Suddenly I was pushed away from the door by an invisible force that exploded from Abaddon. I could tell it was her energy because it had a rotting, acrid stench that tasted like copper in my mouth. It was a power so fierce that it bled through the walls and into my room. Something was thrown against the wall. Adrenaline coursed through my vanes and I realized I could fight back, I had to fight back.

I walked up to the door again, feeling the dark energy push me back. I gripped the handles as tightly as I could and concentrated on the grace inside of me. I could feel the tiny spark warm to my consciousness. I pulled it up through my body and down my arms, into the door, bushing back the demon's energy. The door shifted, not by much, but just enough to let me know it was working. I pushed harder, putting everything I had into it, straining to push back the tides of energy that kept the door closed. I puled as hard as I could to open the door. Suddenly the energy faltered just enough for me to throw the doors open.

The sight that met my eyes confirmed my fears. Crowley sat in a chair clutching his shoulder which was bleeding. Abaddon stood with her feet planted and one arm outstretched towards Dean, who was pinned against the opposite wall a few feet off the ground and totally immobilized. I took it all in in a second, and just as soon as I burst through the door Abaddon looked at me.

It was like time slowed down, Abaddon's confused expression was accompanied by a brief break in her energy, enough to allow Dean to pull himself off the wall, grab the blade that he had dropped. He was on top of Abaddon before she could push him back again, and he thrust the blade into her stomach as Sam burst through the door. Abaddon screamed and red light illuminated her skeleton, flickering as she died.

Her body fell to the floor as the last flicker of life left her, but Dean wasn't finished. He followed her body down and continued stabbing.

"Dean! Dean, stop! You can stop now." Sam told Dean, and I watched as the bloodlust slowly drained out of Dean's eyes. He seemed disoriented, like he had just come to his senses. Sam went over to him and helped him up, and I went over to Crowley.

"Are you alright?" I shakily asked, still feeling rattled by the action. Crowley was digging at the wound in his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, nothing worse then usual. The bullet has a devil's trap carved into it, could you..." He helplessly waved towards to wound, not quite able to get the bullet with his fingers. I cringed at the idea, but then nodded. I pushed the fabric of his shirt aside to get to his shoulder more easily. His skin was covered with blood so I did the best I could to clear the wound before I pushed my fingers inside. He winced slightly, but besides that was remarkably alright with me shoving my hand into his shoulder. I could feel the bullet before I even touched it. A weird energy from the devils trap made it easy to pick out amongst shredded flesh and shattered bone. I could feel electric energy when I touched the bullet, and I pulled it out slowly, my hand now covered in blood. Crowley sighed as I finally dislodged the foreign object, freeing him from it's restrictive hold.

"I'm not hearing any thanks from the other side of the room." Crowley called over to where Sam and Dean were standing, talking quietly.

"We didn't kill you, Crowley, even though it would've been very easy. Isn't that enough?" Sam said in an aggravated tone.

"I'm just surprised that you've managed to drag Ely into another extremely dangerous situation." Dean said while wiping his hands of Abaddon's blood.

"What are you, her mothers?" Crowley shot back.

"You've gotta stop this, you can't keep dragging her through the dirt with you." Dean insisted.

"It's not like I've got a choice, she'd be put in danger if I put her back." Crowley fought, and I was suddenly feeling very self conscious.

"No, she'd be safer as soon as you leave her alone, and the farther away from you she is the safer she'll be." Same chipped in.

"Don't I have any say in this?" I interjected.

"This is for your own safety, Ely." Dean replied. I looked at Crowley desperately. If it was true that I'd be safer away from him then he'd be bound by our deal to do it, but the last thing I wanted was to be stuck back in the small town where I was waiting to die. He looked hesitant, and then, to my horror, relented.

"Alright, just let me talk to her for a second before sending her back." He got up and lead me to the other room as I pleaded with my eyes for him to stop. He couldn't send me back, he just couldn't. He looked at me through the corner of his eye and my heart skipped a beat as he winked. Once we were in the room he turned with a flourish and closed the door, before quickly crossing the room, grabbing me, and pulling me through space in a whirlwind of energy and speed. We ended up in a green park, seemingly devoid of people.

I took a moment to catch my breath and then I was laughing. I sat on the ground and laughed uncontrollably and even Crowley laughed a bit seeing me make a fool of myself on the grass. I just couldn't not laugh. I had been so scared, and then Crowley brazenly defying Sam and Dean. He offered me a hand up again and I giggled as he pulled me up. Caught up in a flood of emotions, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and before I could over think it, my lips connected with his and we kissed for the second time. But this time was different, it was like fire, and he kissed me back intensely. I slowly pulled away and looked at him, his deep brown eyes looked back into me with that familiar searching gaze. I suddenly felt awkward and didn't know what to do, so I took a step back.

"Well... So, um. What now?" I asked, becoming flustered. Crowley seemed to be shocked in place and it took him a moment to catch up with my question.

"Now? Now... I take you to hell with me, I guess." he shrugged.

"To hell?" I asked skeptically.

"It's better then you'd expect. And I have a lot of work to do now that I'm the unimpeded king once again."

"Alright, then. Let's do it." I was excited to be somewhere new, and with Crowley no less. He stretched out his hand to me and I took it, ready to be swept off my feet this time.


	15. Chapter 15

The journey lasted for a second longer than usual, but I was used to the spinning sensation by now so when we landed on solid ground once more I wasn't nearly as dizzy. The first thing I noticed was the energy difference. It was like nothing I had ever felt before, as if I had suddenly changed altitude but neither up nor down. I looked around to see I was in an enormous hallway made out of dark stone. Columns of stone shaped like spinal segments rose into the tall ceiling and arched over the walkways in an old Gothic style. Enormous chandeliers made up of intertwining bones, iron, and candles hung from the ceiling. Candles lined the wide hallway but they weren't needed, because between every column there were three tall windows, nearly as high as the walls themselves, that let in a bright orange light from outside. Running down the hallway, which had to be as wide as four lanes of traffic, was a wide, warn, red rug that spider-webbed out at the edges as if frayed or unfinished.

I took in the monolithic hallway with a gasp. I could feel ancient and dark energy seeping out of the stones themselves and I shivered even though I was standing in a shaft of orange light. I went to the nearest window and looked out into a vast gray wasteland that stretched as far as I could see. The sky didn't seem to have a sun, only high red clouds that emanate the orange light, like hundreds of arrows falling straight to the ground and slanting through the windows. The light provided no heat, and I was surprised to see that hell wasn't full of lakes of fire, and grounds of fire, and clouds of fire. Hell looked more like a post apocalyptic video game than anything else.

In the distance I could see different regions of the land where the red clouds did not stretch. In one region there was only darkness. Black clouds rimmed that portion of the horizon. Another area held gray, low hanging thunderheads that flashed and sparked silently off in the distance. A third, and the last area I could see at this vantage point, looked much like my preconceived ideas of hell. There were huge tornadoes of fire that I could see even from here, and they raged across that portion of the horizon, setting it ablaze. That was all I could see, because blocking the view on either side was the extension of the massive castle that this hallway was a part of. Portions of the castle stretched impossibly far up into the sky in pointy spires, their tips nearly scraping the red clouds. One spire on the other side of the castle was so big that winged, dragon-like creatures were flying around it, entering and exiting doors in the walls that looked like tiny windows from where I was.

I was completely speechless when I turned back to Crowley, who had been watching me intently as I took in our surroundings, a lopsided smile on his face.

"Do you like it? I helped with the design of the castle, long before I knew I'd be king, of course." he stated.

"It's... breath taking." I finally managed to say, and Crowley looked pleased. "It's nothing like I would have imagined hell to be like."

"No, not this portion at least. Walk with me." We started to walk down the long hallway as Crowley began to explain, "Hell isn't all fire and brimstone as many churches like to depict it. The closest someone had come to depicting hell correctly is in the book Dante's Inferno where hell is depicted as having nine levels. Hell, however, doesn't stretch downwards, it goes outwards, and is made up of hundreds of regions, all specially designed to torture it's inhabitants in a special way. We're in the middle of it all, the epicenter, most likely what Dante would consider limbo. In the bowels of this castle is where souls come to be processed and filtered into the different regions based on their sins. This is where all the important decisions are made, and until recently, no one cared about this place."

As we walked we slowly moved down the hallway and into a different corridor. This hallway didn't have windows but the candle light illuminated grotesque painting that hung on the walls.

"What do you mean no one cared about this place?" I asked.

"Until recently, the only leadership we knew had been trapped in a cage for the entirety of human existence. He vicariously had control over the workings of hell but this place was an unorganized mess until I stepped in." He explained looking very proud of himself. I suspected he might be oversimplifying things a bit to boost his own accomplishments, but I had no doubt that hell had been significantly overhauled once Crowley took over.

"And now Abaddon is dead and you're back as king again. Can we expect more changes?" I joked, but Crowley frowned.

"Yes. I must admit there's quite a bit of a mess for me to clean up now that _that's_ over with. I'll have to restructure a few things, and take care of a lot of Abaddon's leftover goons." he trailed off, clearly thinking through all the work that had to be done. We walked into another big hallway much like the first, but this one wasn't empty. Shadows and shapes moved around the hallway, forms I couldn't quite see or distinguish even though I looked right at them, and they all seemed to pause when I walked into the room following Crowley huffed in annoyance.

"Your uncontested king has returned and you want to stand around gawking? Get back to work!" Crowley barked at the shadows, which all started moving again but much faster. I leaned over to Crowley.

"What are they?" I asked, uncertain. Crowley seemed a bit confused, and then remembered something.

"Oh right." He quickly touched my forehead with two fingers and I could feel a small jolt of electricity causing my eyes to water. I blinked a few times. It was like someone had put glasses on me for the first time in my life, and I never knew how bad my vision was. I could see all of the creatures in the hallway clear as day.

"These are demons without vessels. Humans can't see pure demons, but since you're not entirely human, you can see them just fine given the right training, and I've just sped up that process for you."

"You can do that?"

"I can do a lot of things, sweetheart." Crowley chuckled and started walking through the crowd of demons.

I looked around the room with my newly opened eyes, and found that a lot of the demons looked oddly human. Some of them were hideously twisted and deformed, but still human in their vague shape. Others only had small differences from the human form, such as having protruding bone growths or snakelike features. They all wore strips of sewn together cloth. It was clear that these demons were the mules of the kingdom. They did the grunt work and base labor, none of them were of high standing. As I passed them they gave me strange glances and shrunk away from me.

The hallway opened up into a huge room with a grand, yet sinister, looking throne in the middle. A man who didn't look anything like a demon, dressed in a well tailored suit with slicked back sandy blond hair, came up to Crowley once we entered the larger part of the room.

"Congratulations on your defeat of Abaddon, sir. Things have been in an uproar here, but we've been working tirelessly to put some order back into it."

"Good, round up Abaddon's followers and put them in the castles holding cells, I'll deal with them personally."

"With pleasure." The demon bowed to Crowley and gave me a sidelong glance before leaving the room quickly, calling out to a few other demons as he went. A much more timid looking demon approached Crowley.

"Master, what are we to do with the influx of souls Abaddon was pushing through to build an army with?" the demon asked in a weaselly voice. Crowley growled with impatience.

"Sort them as usual, this is hell after all." he said as he grabbed my arm to lead us through the room faster, avoiding the calls from other demons about issues that needed dealing with. We got through the room and to a door, which Crowley quickly ushered me through before closing it to block out the hubbub of the throne room. He closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his forehead, sighing.

"Things seem to move extremely fast down here." I mentioned.

"Yes, that's the downside of having structure, when one big thing doesn't work right, it has a tendency to fuck up everything else." he continued down yet another hallway, and I was beginning to feel like there was no end to these things. We reached the bottom of some stairs and began to climb them.

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"To my room, of course." his response was nonchalant but my heart beat a bit faster when he said it.

Before we got to the door of his room though, a huge black beast came bounding up to Crowley. I thought he was going to get eaten for sure, and I would soon be next, but when the enormous creature put its paws on Crowley shoulders he laughed as it began to lick his entire face. It appeared to be a wolf, with shaggy black fur and white bones protruding out from it's spine, shoulder blades, and ribs. The top half of it's face was just a skull, with beady red eyes peering out of the eye sockets and horns coming up from where ears would be. Crowley heaved the big dog off of him, patting it on its boney head and scratching its neck.

"This is Daisy, she's one of my hell hounds." Crowley introduced us. The hell hound stared at me with unnerving attentiveness. Her head came up to my shoulder and she could have easily fit my head into her mouth in one bite. The hound seemed incredibly smart, and I felt like I was being introduced to a person, so naturally that's what I did.

"I'm Ely." I spoke directly to her, tentatively stretching out my hand, palm up, for the dog to smell. She snuffed at my hand and looked at Crowley, who nodded, and she went bounding away down the stairs.

"She's off to go chew on some unlucky souls, she's a good girl." Crowley laughed before going up to the door of his room and opening it, "And she likes you."

_Well that's good, _I thought to myself, _at least I'm not making enemies with the hell hounds around here. _

Crowley let me into his room, which had a much more modern look then the rest of the castle.

"I had this room added on for myself when I came to power." he closed the door behind us. The space was a sitting room with red wood flooring and black upholstered couches. Doors on the other walls opened up to more rooms, the first of which Crowley led me into. It was a large study, with an ornate desk and shelves upon shelves of books. Crowley walked up to the far wall where long, red drapes hung. He flung them back to reveal a breath taking view of hell's wasteland bellow us.

"You've certainly made this place pretty cozy." I mentioned to him, still shocked that hell wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be.

"Of course I have, I hate it here. If I didn't have to conduct my kingly duties here I'd never come back. But as it is, there are simply some things that require me to be here to do. So when I must, I want to be as comfortable as possible."

We left the room and moved into the second room which was Crowley's bedroom. There was an enormous bed that took up the middle of the room, the kind of bed that had drapes on the posts to inclose it. The room was surprisingly clean compared to the one in his cabin. There were a few dirty glasses around, along with old parchments with handwriting on them, not to mention to alcohol cabinet that was big enough to rival a small liquor store. The same heavy drapes that were in the study also covered the windows in this room, and there was a door that lead to a sizable balcony area.

"You can sleep here. There, uh, isn't a guest bedroom. I wasn't really thinking of ever having guests when I built the place."

"Oh, no I can't take your bed." I replied immediately.

"You can, and you will." He insisted.

"Where will you sleep?"

"I wont be sleeping much, but if I need to, I'll be on the couch."

I had forgotten that as a demon he really didn't need sleep, but I still felt like I was invading his space a little. At the thought of sleep I realized I was incredibly tired, even though it was bright as midday outside.

"When does it get dark around here?" I asked.

"It doesn't, there is no conventional time here, that's what the blackout curtains are for. In any case, make yourself comfortable. I have some more stuff to do before I can relax, but I'll be back shortly, and with food." he assured me casually, and turned to leave.

"Wait, Crowley." I called to him before he could leave the room again. I felt like he was always leaving right when I wanted him to stay the most. He paused and turned back to me. I went up to him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders in a hug.

"Thanks for everything." I spoke with my cheek against his shoulder. He was frozen for a moment before relaxing and putting him arms around me.

"Of course, Ely." he said in a low, gentle voice which I'd never heard before. I enjoyed the feel of his warmth against me, and his arms protectively around me. I wished it could have lasted longer, but he eventually pulled away, reassuring me again that he would be back soon, and left.


	16. Chapter 16

I spent a little while exploring the place while Crowley was gone. I was grateful to find a full bathroom with a shower. I cleaned myself off and washed my clothes in the sink, watching streams of dirty water run into the drain. I wrapped myself in a towel and hung my clothes up to dry, feeling fresh and clean for the first time in a while. I noticed that even though I hadn't eaten in a long time, I was only marginally hungry. That might have been due to my grace, since I'd read that angels have no need for food. I looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't have a single scar on me thanks to Castiel except for the fading black veins where the poison had been injected. The area still hurt and tingled a bit.

I went and sat on the balcony for a little while. There was a hot, dry wind that rushed across the planes of rock and earth and over the castle walls. The light that seeped through the clouds seemed to irritate my skin, and the air smelled faintly like smoke, sulfur, and other things I couldn't quite place. A part of my mind wondered if that was what burning flesh smelled like. It wasn't really pleasant to be outside, go figure, so I got up to go back inside. As I reached the door, turning the knob just about to open it, the _thump_ of a shock wave hit me, blowing my hair into my face and causing my heart to lurch. I spun around to see what had happened, but nothing in the scenery had changed.

Confused, I looked around for the source, and then it hit me again, like a sledgehammer to my chest, knocking me back against the door and then pulling me forward. I struggled desperately against the invisible force, getting my legs underneath me and grabbing on to anything around me that I could to keep me stable. Something was pulling on me, deep down inside, tugging on my grace with icy cold fingers. It was dragging me closer and closer to the edge of the balcony. I put my hand on the railing, pushing against it to keep myself from toppling over, my heart racing, struggling against it for my life.

My grace flared up suddenly, as if awoken, and the force on my chest weakened a bit. I realized the only way I was going to break free was if I pushed back with my own power. Concentrating as I much as I could, I began to pull away from the edge. A gust of wind began to kick up around me in strokes and I was able to walk back to the door step by strenuous step. I looked at the landscape right in front of me and I could feel the pull dragging me straight to a region on the horizon where there was the spiking icy shapes of a frigid cold wasteland. There was something familiar about the malicious energy that pulled me that way, but I couldn't think about it amidst the struggle.

I finally made it back to the door and burst inside, slamming the door behind me, huffing in exhaustion. I waited while my heart slowed its beating, relaxing as I could feel the energy was severed as soon as the door had been shut.

_What the fuck was that?! _My mind was in a jostled haze as I tried to make sense of anything. If there was something outside that was going to kill me I wish Crowley would've at least given me a heads up. I sat on the floor for a moment, thinking about it, confused and afraid to go back outside. There was something distinctly familiar about whatever had grabbed me. I tried to place where I might know it from, but I ended up giving up because I couldn't possibly be familiar with anything in hell.

I remembered that I was still in just a towel, so I decided to try to forget about whatever had been outside, and go check on my clothes. They were still damp, unfortunately, and I had no way of speeding up the drying process other then putting them outside, which I refused to do. I was also becoming incredibly more tired the longer I stayed up. I wanted to wait for Crowley to get back, but the more I looked at the big, luxuriously fluffy bed, the more I decided it wouldn't be so bad if I just laid down for a little while. I would be awake and up long before Crowley got back, I was sure.

So that's what I did. I went and laid down on the bed with my towel still around me and rested my head on the silky soft pillows. It was a really comfortable bed, and I felt like I was almost floating on clouds. There was no way this was a normal bed, it was too perfect, but I didn't mind. I quickly fell asleep.

Through the groggy haze of a deep sleep my brain barely recognized the sound of a door opening and closing again. There was a sound, and then silence. Part of my still-asleep brain told me to ignore it; I was too tired and too comfortable to be bothered by something as insignificant as a noise. I was almost ready to forget all about the noise, too, when the bed suddenly shook and I became instantly aware that I was no longer on it alone. I snapped into consciousness jarringly fast as my eyes opened and my muscles tensed reflexively.

I looked to the side where the movement on the bed had come from, and to my shock I found Crowley. He was laying on his side, facing me with one of his hands propping his head up. He had his usual attire on minus his suit coat and shoes, which he must have taken off before getting on the bed, and on his face he wore a mischievous smirk.

"Oh sorry, did I wake you?" he raised his eyebrows in feigned surprise.

My sleep addled brain churned sluggishly to catch up with the situation I had woken up to. With no small amount of horror I realized the extremely compromising position I was in. I was laying naked on a bed not more then a foot away from the king of hell with nothing but a small towel covering me. His smile seemed to widen slightly as the realization hit me. I quickly grasped at the towel and the covers on the bed.

"Damnit Crowley, knock first or something!" I yelled at him as I buried all but my head under a pile of blankets. He only laughed.

"I'm serious!" I insisted, "Get out of the room."

"But it's my room, I can come and go as I please." he was amused by the situation, I could tell. I glared at him, trying to get him to leave with my (apparently) non-lethal stare. He sat there, holding my gaze for a little while, like an old western standoff, neither one of us willing to blink first. Eventually, though, he inclined his head, still smirking.

"Alright then." He rolled off the bed and went to stand by the balcony window, peeking back over his shoulder at me once he got there but otherwise keeping his back to me.

"Am I really supposed to trust you to stay there?" I asked sceptically.

"Placing any trust in me would probably be ill fated, but do whatever you like." his tone was playful, almost like a challenge. I was intrigued by this unexpected attitude. I realized I would have to get to the bathroom to put my clothes back on, so I quickly adjusted my towel around me again and looked back at Crowley.

"Now don't you dare look around." I cautioned him in the most serious tone I could muster. He snorted but didn't turn around, so, while keeping my eyes on him, I got out of the bed and backed towards the bathroom as quickly as I could without watching where I was going. He continued to stay fixated on the outside world and I soon found the door handle to the bathroom with my hand and rushed in, shutting and locking the door behind me. I let out a sigh of relief when I found my clothes to be completely dry. I threw them on quickly and then looked into the mirror. My hair was tussled and messy from sleeping, and my eyes definitely looked a little tired. I splashed water on my face and fixed my hair. I had my pride.

All put back together, I opened the door to the bathroom again and stepped out. I had a long list of colorful words I planned to use on Crowley, and a short speech I had quickly thrown together to properly chastise him. I opened my mouth to begin, but stopped just short of words when I realized the room was empty and Crowley was nowhere to be seen. I stood there with my mouth open for a second before I had the sense to close it again. _He must have left_, I thought to myself, a little disappointed.

Without any warning, two strong hands wrapped around my waist from behind, pulling me into a broad chest. At first I struggled, but when Crowley lowered his head down close to my ear I froze. My breath caught in my throat as his cheek brushed against my neck. I could feel him on every inch of my back and his head was so close to my skin his breath was giving me chills.

I could feel the heat of his lips and the soft tickle of his beard as he slowly, ever so slowly, worked his way up my neck. The contact left my skin tingling in its wake.

"You're deliciously cute when you're flustered." he spoke quietly into my ear. I spun around and pushed on his chest with both my hands to try to physically distance myself, not entirely comfortable with this new turn of events. His eyes met mine in a dark, serious stare, a devilish grin playing across his face as his arms kept me from being able to move away from him.

"What are you doing?" I managed to say as I pulled out of the embrace of his arms. He continued to look at me with unnerving intensity and took a step towards me, which made me take a step back. He took another step which I tried to retreat from but my legs hit the edge of the bed, ending my ability to go any further. In one swift, powerful motion Crowley stepped in and hoisted me up and then down on the the bed, pinning me there with his body. My breath caught in my throat as I felt the weight of him settle on top of me, heat and energy radiating off of him as if he was feverish. I tried to push him off but he easily overcame all of my defenses, capturing both my hands with one of his own and pinning them down on the bed above my head. With his other hand he grabbed my chin, angling my face towards him and I saw his eyes flash with firey intention as he leaned down and kissed me deeply. His lips moved against mine as if he couldn't quite get enough of me. The intensity of it all left my head spinning and I found myself almost enjoying it. There was an energy in his kiss that I could taste, it was wafting off of him in waves, and the feeling of being enveloped in such raw power was nearly intoxicating.

Our mouths broke apart and I gasped for breath as his hands found their was down to my waist. His mouth occupied itself on my neck as his hands slipped under my shirt, feeling around the bare skin of my stomach. He sighed heavily against my neck, pausing for a moment, maybe restraining himself, maybe relishing the moment, but I took the opportunity to pull myself together.

"Crowley..." I said, barely above a whisper but I knew he heard because he made a low rumbling noise that could have been mistaken for a cat's purr.

"Crowley, something tried to pull me off the balcony while you were gone." I said in a stronger voice this time, which caused him to stop moving entirely. He pushed himself up enough to look me in the eyes, searching my expression. Maybe he thought I was lying, or maybe he knew exactly what I was talking about, but whatever he was thinking was entirely a mystery to me.

"It would have dragged me off the edge if I hadn't gotten back inside. You didn't tell me there would be something like that if I went outside." I continued, a frustrated and slightly perplexed expression crept onto his face. With a huff he rolled off me and sat up on the side of the bed. I felt like I could finally breath freely again now that he wasn't on top of me, but a part of me missed his warmth already.

"Did you see what it was?" Crowley asked in a monotone voice as he straightened his shirt. I sat up as well, pulling my shirt down quickly while he was preoccupied. A familiar yet unwanted feeling of embarrassment rose into my face and I could no longer look at Crowley.

"No," I said while I fixed my gaze on the blank wall, "It was some invisible force that seemed to be coming from very far away, in the direction of that icy region of hell, I think..."

That caught his attention and I could feel him glance at me but I continued to stare elsewhere.

"How do you know it was pulling you towards there?" He turned more of his attention towards me and I in turn got off the bed to look out the balcony window, shivering a little as I looked at the distant ice caps of the mountainous region, remembering what it had felt like to be pulled towards it.

"I don't know exactly..." I trailed off, not sure what more to add. I heard Crowley stand up from the edge of the bed behind me but didn't come towards me. I glanced back to see him leaning against one of the posts of the bed with his arms folded across his chest and one of his hands rubbing his chin as he looked at me blankly. I didn't hold his gaze long before I turned back to the window, relieved to have somewhere else to look.

"So you don't know what could have done that?" I asked, trying to be as casual as possible.

"No, not really, but I may have some guesses." His voice sounded a little off, but I couldn't figure out why, and I didn't dare look at him again.

"I'll have to look into that." He said almost to himself, and then to me, "When you're ready there will be food in the main room for you." and with that he left the room and closed the door behind him.

Feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted I went and sat down on the floor with my back against the side of the bed. I tried to make sense of the storm of emotions that were going through my mind during that moment. On the one hand, I desperately craved the physical intimacy, but on the other hand it felt so incredibly wrong. I didn't want things to go like that, and I just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something ruthless in the way Crowley acted. But he had stopped as well, he could have easily kept going and I wouldn't have been able to stop him. I shuddered to think how things might have continued, and I might have even enjoyed portions of it, but I would have felt dirty and used afterwords. My thoughts came back around to how I felt for Crowley, but he was, after all, a demon, and the king of hell, and definitely not a good person. Maybe I was making a huge mistake in falling for him. How could he ever feel for me in the way that I wanted? I wasn't even sure he was capable of feeling anything remotely close to love. It was clear he felt sexual desire, but was that any deeper than simple lust?

I didn't like the unanswered questions that crowded into my head like unwanted house-guests, and I didn't like how each possible answer caused my heart to ache painfully. How had I even gotten myself into such a mess? I had to put some sort of halt to things, for my own emotional safety.

I stood up, ready to enter the main room, ready to interact with Crowley again, but this time with some rules set up in my mind. No physical contact. No vulnerability. And above all, I had to banish the thought that Crowley could ever love me.

* * *

**A/N: Drama alert! And I'm back to writing! So incredibly sorry for the long hiatus, but I assure you this story is going to get done**


	17. Chapter 17

I walked to the door that lead back to the main room but stopped just short of opening it. I froze with my hand on the door, unable to bring myself to move it. I let out a strained sigh and took a moment to put myself back together. I went into the bathroom and combed through my hair with my fingers and made sure I looked calm and composed. I wasn't really looking forward to the awkwardness of being in the same room as Crowley again, but the more I thought about food, the more hungry I felt. I wondered for a moment what kind of food they would have in hell, but quickly realized that I was simply stalling when I could just walk into the next room and find out for sure. I went to the door again and gingerly pushed it open, bracing myself to see Crowley when I walked into the sitting room. Crowley, however, was not to be seen. I scanned the room thoroughly, worried that he might appear at any moment, but he didn't. I heard the scratching of a pen and shifting of papers coming from Crowley's office and realized that must be where he was.

I tiptoed to the open door and peaked in. Sure enough, Crowley was sitting at his large wooden desk, piles of papers had been stacked up on almost every inch of the desk top. He didn't seem to notice me at the door, or maybe he knew I was there and just didn't care because he kept completely focused on the work he was doing without so much as a pause. The curtains had been mostly pulled closed, leaving only a small sliver of light to illuminate the room, giving it a claustrophobic, foreboding feel. A lamp on the desk shined extra light on Crowley's face and the papers around him. He had a grim expression on his face, like a scowl mixed with sheer boredom. He had a glass of dark liquor in one hand that he seemed to be draining quickly while his other hand scratched a pen across the parchment in front of him.

I felt it was best to leave him to it and turned back to the main room. Now that I wasn't paranoid about Crowley I looked to the center of the room and realized that there were three old-school silver platters with shiny lids laid out on the coffee table between the plush couches. I took a seat and eagerly took the tops off of the dishes. The savory smell of grilled meat met my nose as I took the first lid off to see a few thick slices of steak. The second dish held a steaming mound of mixed-grain rice, and the last dish had buttery steamed vegetables on it. The sight of the food made my mouth water and I dished up my plate with a heaping serving of each option. Before I could dig in I noticed another plate on the table that made me pause. Why was there another plate and set of silverware? I wondered if Crowley had planned on eating with me. I looked over to the office door, I couldn't see directly into the room but I could still hear Crowley working. It didn't make sense though, being a demon Crowley didn't have any need to eat. Maybe he thought he would and then changed his mind or got busy. In any case, he wasn't here now, so I decided not to think about it and just eat.

All of the food was delicious and left me wondering how exactly they got their hands on such great food in hell. In fact, I was almost certain it hadn't come from hell at all, but then again there were quite a few incorrect expectations I had held for what hell would be like. I almost got up to go ask Crowley and then thought better of it. I finished my food in silence, listening to the faint sounds of pen on paper and wind just outside the windows. After I finished my food I occupied myself with studying the room, unsure of what to do next.

By the time I felt like I had memorized every inch of the wallpaper I noticed Crowley's office had gone silent. I listened closely for a few moments to make sure I really didn't hear anything before getting up and going to look in the doorway. Crowley was standing at the window with the curtains drawn back all the way now. His window had the same view as the balcony off of the bedroom, and he was looking off towards the snowy region of hell. I tentatively walked up to the window as well and looked out. I shivered as I watched black clouds sparked with lightning obscure the distant snowy peaks.

"So you really don't know what tried to pull me off the balcony?" I asked, breaking the silence. Crowley didn't reply immediately.

"Like I said, I have a few guesses, but I don't know anything for sure." He eventually replied, his voice sounded a little weary.

"Well, what are some of your guesses then?" I pushed, sensing his hesitancy to continue this line of questioning.

"There are quite a few vile creatures in that region. There are vile creatures in every region, but that one in particular tends to breed a bad lot. They always say Satan's wrath burns cold, and places where he held the most influence were always the coldest. Regions like that one would probably be what most people consider to be the ninth level of hell, and some of the most sick, twisted, and evil spirits and demons are sent there." He skirted around answering my question.

"Alright, then which of those monsters was attacking me?" I insisted on getting an answer.

"One of my guesses... and it's really only a guess. You see, I don't have accurate records of what all is lurking around out there –"

"Just tell me!" I lost my patience and he cast a dark look at me.

"Do you remember how it is said that Satan captured the angel Eloa and imprisoned her somewhere in hell?"

"Of course." I was beginning to see where Crowley was going with this.

"It may be that she was trapped away in that region of hell, and that the force you felt was the connection between the two of you drawing you both together, two halves of the same being. It would make sense, really. Satan trapping her in the coldest region of hell is, after all, the closest thing to his cold, dead heart. He always was a sadistic bastard like that." Crowley trailed off.

It was almost like he had found the word that was on the tip of my tongue but that I just couldn't remember.

"That has to be it!" I exclaimed excitedly and turned towards Crowley. It just made perfect sense, the strange familiar feeling I had felt, the invisible force that had pulled me. It was like somehow I knew, without a doubt, that what I had felt was Eloa. My excitement at the revelation, however, didn't spread to Crowley, who still wore a dark grimace.

"What? This is a good thing! No one has ever known where she was caged, right? But now we can find her –"

"Stop"

" – and finally set her free. She doesn't deserve to be in hell."

"Silence!" Crowley's voice boomed through the room like a shock wave causing me to jump, "Are you really so naive as to think that releasing that angel is in any way a good thing or that it wont come with dire consequences?"

"But you're the king of hell, surely you have the power to go there and release her."

"It's really not that simple." He growled in a low voice.

"Why not?"

"If I were to even entertain this notion that would mean you would have to come with me into one of the worst parts of hell. And in case you forgot, hell is a lawless place. It doesn't matter who steps into that region, be it a king or a peasant, they become fair game."

"But aren't you stronger then anything down here?" I tried to reason with him.

"There are many things much older and much stronger then me that lurk in the depths of hell. And that's beside the point, the main issue here is that you think releasing Eloa would be a good thing, and I can tell you right now it's not. This is an angel that has been trapped for eons in the worst place imaginable. Even God himself, curse his name, couldn't come out of there the same person he was before."

"You can't know that for sure. She is a unique angel, she could have held on for all this time. That could be why she split her grace and created my lineage, so that I could be drawn back to her and set her free."

"Stop this foolish line of thinking, mouse. There is nothing you can do for that angel, and it would be best if you dropped it completely." Crowley warned me but something inside of me had clicked and there was no going back. I knew, deep down, to the very depths of my being, that I had to do this.

"I will do this whether you are with me or not." Crowley seemed to blanch at that statement.

"You wouldn't last a second." His tone had shifted and he sounded much more weary now. Maybe he feared that I really would find a way to get to Eloa alone and free her. Truthfully, I had said that as an offhanded bluff, and the thought of it actually scared the ever-living shit out of me, but I tried my best not to let any of that show.

"Then please come with me. I know this sounds crazy and came completely out of nowhere. You must think I'm insane, and I wouldn't blame you, but I have to do this. I can't explain why I suddenly care so much about this, but I'm not going to be able to rest easy until I've found Eloa. And, I mean, you're the king of hell, if anyone has the power and authority to see this through to completion, it's you!" I must have come across like a small child pleading for a piece of candy at the store, but I didn't know what else to say to convince Crowley to hear me out.

He let out a heavy sigh and stared at me with one of those searching gazes I was beginning to get used to from him.

"This is a fools errand." and though he didn't say it out loud, the tone of his voice told me this was my point of no return. I either had to drop everything now or see it through to the end.

"I understand." I stood firm in my resolve to find this angel, the other half of myself. There was no option to turn back for me. I suppose, if I thought about it, this had all been set in motion the moment I decided to step into that dive bar and met Crowley for the first time. It felt like forever ago now, like distant memories of someone else's life. It had all led me here and I realized I had to finish this.

"Alright," Crowley sounded resigned yet strained, "I will provide you with the safest journey possible into and out of that Godforsaken place, but I will not help you to release that creature from its cage."

The callous way in which he referred to the angel that I shared grace with stung me. But he had agreed to escort me there and back, and even if he refused to open up her cage, I was sure I could find a way to do it myself. I nodded my head in agreement. I could understand Crowley's hesitance, but he simply couldn't see things as clearly as I could see them, and for now he was just going to have to trust that I knew what I was doing.


	18. Chapter 18

Crowley definitely wasn't happy with me in the slightest, but with a sigh of resignation he called a demon into the room and told him to start on preparations for our trip to the frozen region of hell. Crowley quickly wrote out a list of things and handed it to the other demon, and with a nod the underling sped out of the room to accomplish his task.

"Are we leaving immediately?" I asked, shocked by how quickly things were being set in motion.

"Yes. I need to make a few quick arrangements but I would rather have this over and done with, and maybe we can get through it with our hides intact." the serious tone of his voice made me wonder what exactly was in that region of hell that made the King of Hell so uneasy. I decided not to worry too much about it, I knew Crowley would keep me safe.

"Listen, I need to talk with a few of my lieutenants. When that demon gets back, put on whatever he gives to you, and familiarize yourself with Daisy, she'll be your personal hell hound for the trip." Crowley told me as he walked to the door and opened it, whistling loudly. A few moment later a huge beast came bounding into the room. Daisy looked just as big and menacing as she had when we first met, and she greeted Crowley with a low, thundering bark that sounded like two stones grinding against each other. He scratched her neck and pointed towards me.

"Get comfy," he addressed the hound, "you'll be watching over our little mouse here."

Daisy looked at me with her unnervingly intelligent glowing-red eyes. I realized uncomfortably that she had no eyelids, her eyes simply stared unblinkingly from inside the dark, recessed eye sockets of her skull. Crowley disappeared through the door without another word and I found myself alone in the room with a creature that could probably rip my arm off.

"Hi Daisy." I said, extending my hand again to greet her, my conversational skills were not really my strong suit. She lumbered over to me and nudged my hand up with her massive head. The feeling of the hard, exposed bone of the top of her head sent shivers down my spine. I made sure to avoid her eyes as I let my hand slip over her head and down to her neck where shaggy black hair grew. The bones that protruded from her spine and rib cage were a stained cream color, but her fur and claws were jet black. As I pet her neck I noticed a dry substance was coating some parts of her fur. I rubbed some of it off and dark red flakes fell onto my hand. At first I thought it was mud, but quickly realized it must have been blood, and not her's either. I pulled my hand back and quickly brushed the dried blood off of it. The large hound sat down on her haunches and stared past me, yawning almost as if she were bored and began to pant softly with her dark red tongue lulling out one side of her mouth. I could smell blood on her breath. I decided it would be best not to think too much about what she had been doing before coming to the room.

Before too long there was a knock at the door. I looked around almost expecting Crowley to answer the knock before I remembered I was the only one in the room besides Daisy.

"Come in." I called out and the demon Crowley had talked to came through the door with a bundle of clothing.

"The King instructed that you dress warmly." was all he said as he deposited the clothes on to the seat beside me and left again. He seemed to be avoiding making eye contact with me or getting too close. Was I really so weird that demons chose to avoid me like the plague? In any case, I got up to look through the odd assortment of clothes.

Most of it looked fairly old in style, with simple designs and fur linings. I felt the clothing would be more suited for a medieval excursion, but I had to admit my shorts and tank top definitely weren't going to cut it for where we were going. I picked out a pair of thick fur lined pants and a top made out of tough, woven material. A leather vest helped pull the top closer around me so it didn't look as baggy, and fur lined boots that laced nicely to my feet nearly completed the mottled brown ensemble of leather, cloth, and fur. I found a nice pair of gloves and a long, heavy jacket that I set aside to wear whenever it actually started getting cold. Daisy ignored me as I changed, but she did follow me into the bedroom and sat at the end of the bed as I did so. After getting it all on I looked at myself in the mirror.

I looked like a certain red-headed wildling from a TV show I watched a while ago, but it wasn't a bad look. In fact, I kind of enjoyed it. There was a rugged, adventurous feel to the outfit.

I heard someone enter the main room and saw Daisy perk up at the noise, wagging her tangled, shaggy tail. It must have been Crowley judging by the hounds reaction and the fact that there was no knock before entering. I left the bedroom to have my guess confirmed. Crowley stood just inside the doorway of the main entrance speaking to yet another demon who looked of much higher rank then the last one. This one was in a female body with short cropped hair in a military style. She stood with her hands behind her perfectly straight back and her shoulders squared.

" – and make sure everyone's ready if need be." Crowley finished instructing her and closed the door as she walked away. He turned from the door and seemed to be a little surprised upon seeing me. Maybe it was the strange clothes I was wearing.

"Well, you said to dress warmly." I said, flopping my arms a little dumbly at my sides. He smirked at me.

"That I did. Have you kept your dagger on you?"

"Yeah." I reached to my side where I had fastened the blade, taking it out to show him I had it. "But if this place is as dangerous as you say, shouldn't I have a gun or something with some firepower behind it?"

"Unfortunately there are very few weapons that will kill as many different creatures as that blade can. I have yet to get around to creating a branch to research and produce more effective weapons. Most items would require ancient magic to be effective, and witches are not exactly keen on sharing with demons." he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. It made me realize there must be a lot of strange codes and politics that dictated how these different monsters interacted with each other. Like an entire other world of complicated relationships and ties of allegiance. I wondered if things were as complicated as this in heaven.

As I got lost in thought Crowley went into his office and came back out with a small golden knife that looked more like a letter opener then a real weapon.

"Now, I need you to take off your shirt." He told me out of the blue. I almost didn't even register what he had told me to do and just stared at him for a moment until he nodded impatiently and motioned for me to get on with it.

"Why?"

"You'll need more then a weapon to stay protected." Was all he decided I needed to know about it. Hesitantly I took off my vest and then awkwardly pulled my shirt off over my head. With just my bra to cover my top half, I stood in front of Crowley with my arms crossed and a familiar heat rising to my face. But there was nothing but cold, detached inspection that crossed Crowley's expression. It was like he was looking at a slab of marble, considering how best to start carving into it. I simply stood and allowed him to do whatever it was he needed. With the knife he cut open his palm without even a wince of pain and dabbed the blood on each of his fingertips.

First, he extended his hand and touched the tips of all five of his fingers to the middle of my chest. I felt a quick searing burn on my skin and couldn't help but recoil. Looking down I saw that my skin looked like it had been tattooed with dark red ink, slightly raising the skin in irritation. There was a round symbol that looked like a sun with a pentagram in the middle.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"That protects from demonic possession. Now get back over here and so I can continue."

I complied and he put his hand over my upper arm on the side where I had been injected with the demonic substance as a means of torture. There were still dark tendrils that webbed out from the spot of injection, but they had been slowly fading. The same burning feeling etched another design around the spot, an octagonal shape that encompassed the dark spot almost like a cage with runes and other symbols branching up and down my arm. I tried to stay as still as possible as I winced through the pain. I couldn't tell if I smelled my skin burning or if that was my imagination.

"Should've done that one a while ago." Crowley muttered to himself and continued around me to my back where he placed one of his hands on the side of my neck, his thumb on the base of my skull, and his other hand rested gently on my waist, thumb on my spine just above the tailbone. My skin tingled and my hair raised on end. This wasn't like the tattoos. Crowley moved his thumbs along my spine till they met in the middle of my back and I could feel a pressure building in my body as if Crowley's thumbs were two magnets and he was trying to force both negative sides together. Suddenly, with a ripping sensation that sent white flashes across my vision, Crowley raked his fingers back along my spine.

My knees buckled and I hit the floor hard but managed to not fall flat on my face. The pressure had been released with a pop that brought a wave of satisfaction so blissful it almost won out over the shock and pain. I frantically grasped at my back thinking Crowley must have ripped my spine clean out of me, but the skin hadn't even been broken and I didn't feel the slickness of blood that I expected.

Gasping and half frantic I looked at Crowley, not able to form the words for the questions I was trying to ask. Crowley had a satisfied look on his face.

"I gave you the full use of your wings." He looked pleased with his work.

"What?"

"Wings, y'know, the feathery appendages angels use to flit around with."

I craned my neck to try to look over my shoulder but I couldn't see anything.

"Give it time, you're not used to them yet, and you wont be able to fully see them in a human body, but I can assure you, they're there."

I would have thought he was pulling a prank on me but for the fact that I could _feel _something on by back that hadn't been there before. The room seemed a little brighter then before and I felt a little heavier. If I squinted I could see a shimmering distortion in the air that did seem to have the shape of massive wings coming from my back. I stood up slowly, testing the new weight on my shoulders. Not much was different except for the fact that I felt like I suddenly had two extra arms that tingled like pins and needles. I was afraid to move anything for fear of experiencing more pain.

"Go ahead, stretch out and relax." Crowley instructed.

I cautiously tried moving these new extensions of my body and was surprised when they responded to my brains command to move. This must be what it would feel like to have a prosthetic limb wired to your brain that reacted in accordance to the signals it was sent. It was me, a part of me at least, but at the same time so foreign. I stretched out more, and the more I felt out my wings the more powerful I felt. I looked around me and even though I couldn't quite see my wings I felt them stretch from one side of the room to the other. I relaxed, letting them pull back in close to my body. It felt warm and comforting, like I was wrapping them close around myself. The light in the room retracted into me, leaving it the same brightness as it had been before Crowley had done... whatever it was he did to make this happen.

"How did you know how to do that?" I turned back to him full of questions, the pain now a distant afterthought to my excitement. His face went from one of amusement to a guarded calm as he contemplated his response to my answer.

"Many demons were once human souls, flightless, weak, and pathetic. If they can't figure out how to fly then they'll never be anything more then twisted, tortured souls. I watched others try and fail, or succeed, and I had many failed attempts myself..." He lost his train of thought for a moment before finding it again, "Knowing the basics made it easy, you already had the capacity to fly, you just needed help getting it out of you."

"So, I guess this is stupid to not realize, but you have wings?"

"Yes," his laugh reassured me it was, in fact, a stupid question, "How do you think I get around as fast as I do?"

"I don't know, I guess it always just looked like you teleported to me." I shrugged.

"Well now you know. So put your shirt back on, we've got to start heading out." His demeanor changed to that of cold seriousness and I was reminded of the whole reason for this.

I put my shirt and vest back on while Crowley went back into his office and gathered up some papers. He came back out with a heavy black coat over his arm. Seeing how he was ready to go I quickly grabbed my coat and gloves.

"Alright, we're leaving." he stated and walked to the main door, opened it, and motioned me through, Daisy right no my heels.

* * *

**A/N: Slowly but surely we're getting deeper into hell, the full scope of Ely's powers, and the broader plot! Not to mention some interesting Crowley tidbits**

**Also a thousand thanks to those of you who have kept with me this far and a thousand welcomes to everyone who's finding this for the first time, you're all awesome :D**


	19. Chapter 19

Crowley, Daisy, and I brusquely made our way through large hallways and down twisting staircases, moving further and further down the massive castles interior. I was soon completely disoriented. Crowley, however, never wavered in his strides, confidently traversing the space as if he had been through the hole place a thousand times. Now that I thought of it, it was possible he _had _spent countless years walking through these halls.

Though I would say our pace was quick, the way Daisy lazily plodded along beside me with her large strides made me wish I could just hop on her back and be carried along, but I doubted she would be too happy with that even though I was sure she could take my weight, being the size of a small horse. At first there were quite a few demons passing us, all of them moving aside and giving the three of us a wide birth when passing by, but in the lower corridors there was hardly a soul to be seen. The further we went the more dated the architecture and furnishings started to look, as if we were getting into an older part of the castle that no one ever bothered to renovate.

"Where exactly are we going, Crowley?" I asked, beginning to get slightly winded keeping up with him while there didn't seem to be any clear end in sight.

"We're going to the cove underneath the castle where the boats are docked."

"We're taking a boat?"

"Did I not tell you? Yes, one of the only forms of transportation around hell is by boat."

"Is that how souls come into hell, by boat?" I asked, thinking of the river Styx from Greek mythology.

"Yes indeed, the reapers round up the souls on ships that transport them here to be processed. It's a tad outdated I feel, but of all of the things that need fixing in Hell," he sighed heavily, "that's not one that makes the list."

Satisfied, I fell silent once more. With only the sound of our footsteps and Daisy's panting to fill the space I was beginning to hear other noises coming through the walls as we descended deeper. Screams coming from somewhere further bellow us echoed through the walls faintly, and it raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I shivered in spite of the heavy clothing I wore. Finally we came to an old wooden door with a black demonic sigil painted across it. Crowley pushed it open and held it for Daisy and I do go through first.

"Mind your step." he cautioned as I passed through the door and found myself standing on a rock ledge on the wall of an enormous cave. There was only one way to go, and that was down a very long and steep flight of stairs that hugged the cave wall and led down to the docks bellow. There was no railing to protect against a long drop, and the stone steps were slick from the moist air, but Daisy positioned herself between me and the drop as I started to make my way down. I felt much better with the hell hound there, but for good measure I rested my hand on her muscular shoulder to further steady myself. Crowley followed up in the rear. As I became more assured I wouldn't slip on the steps I looked down at the various ships at dock. All of the ships were indeed very old, some very large and some small, but each was covered in decay and blackened by layers of tar. None of the ships had a mast or sails like I had expected, instead each had rows of openings in the sides where oars stuck out. I guessed some unlucky souls where tasked with rowing the boats. The cave had two very large openings on opposite ends and I watched as an enormous ship slowly made it's way in to dock. The whole place was eerily quiet.

I got to the bottom of the stairs and Crowley resumed his lead towards the docks. I noticed a group of monstrously shaped demons waiting for us as we approached one of the smaller boats. They were vaguely humanoid shaped in that they all stood on two legs, but beyond that the similarities grew scarce. Each one was notably different, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to look at them for long enough to get a good idea of their features except to say they were hulking, muscle bound creatures and none of them had wings. Crowley made his way up to the largest demon.

"I trust everything is in order so that we can get on our way." He stated rather then asked, and the demon grunted in agreement. I tried to steal a quick look at the demons face. I was only able to make out the misshapen protrusions of horns and a dozen or so black eyes, and finally a glimpse of its mouth that had been horridly sewn shut with thick string. In fact, all of them had their mouths sewn shut, but with that observation I seemed to have drawn the attention of all six of them before I could revert my eyes again. My skin crawled as I felt their gazes rest on me. Crowley didn't seem to take notice and I quickly followed as he continued on to board one of the smaller ships at dock. I realized these demons must be our guards for the journey, but I wasn't feeling any more comfortable for having them around.

The boat we were on had one row of oars that protruded from bellow deck. I could see the hatch where one would descend to the lower level but it was locked tight with another demonic sigil painted in red on the nearly black wood. There was a small cabin on the boat and a section at the back were a silent figure cloaked in dirty black robes stood by the rudder.

I stood awkwardly on the deck of the boat while Crowley went over to the robed figure and began to talk with him in a low enough voice that I couldn't quite make out what he was saying. Since we were in a cave we were still slightly protected from the full atmosphere of Hell, but something about the air seemed to catch in my throat and fill up my lungs causing me to strain to keep from coughing. This was really only a brief glimpse of Hell outside of the seemingly protective walls of the castle and already it was trying to suffocate me. I noticed that the boat barely swayed on the water and decided to go to the edge to investigate. I looked down into the murky water but could see nothing past the thick, muddy red surface. There seemed to be no current to the water which allowed the stagnant surface to accumulate red algae of some sort. The whole body of water had a weird oily sheen to it and emitted a foul stench that wafted off of the surface and stung my nose and eyes, causing me to retreat from the side. The old boards of the boat creaked as the six demons came on to the deck, taking up positions evenly around it as I tried to stay as far away from them as possible.

The boat suddenly lurched slightly to the side and I noticed the oars had pushed us off from the dock and started to row towards one of the large openings out of the cave and towards our destination. I could feel the slight tugging of my other half as if it were trying to pull me to that viciously cold region of hell faster then the boat would allow, but this time I felt strong enough to easily stand my ground against it. Perhaps it was the wings on my back anchoring me in place. Crowley came up beside me, done with his chat.

"It would be best to make our way into the cabin now." He suggested.

"I don't want to go in quite yet." I said, still curious to see what the rest of the outside would look like.

"You wont like it." He grunted in reply, but stayed on deck next to me as the boat slipped out from underneath the castle and into the light, making its way down the river at an increasing speed. The first thing to hit me was the stiflingly hot air. The thick heat made me incredibly uncomfortable in the heavy clothing that I was wearing. The light in its full strength hurt my eyes and I had to squint to keep track of my surroundings, which was odd since there was a perpetual covering of orange tinted clouds. The far shorelines were dusty gray with withered and dead foliage strewn about it and for a moment I wondered how anything had managed to grow there to begin with. The stench of the river was made even stronger now by the heat and with it came the nauseating smell of decaying flesh. A strange thought crossed my mind at that moment: I might have ended up coming here on a boat in the worst way possible if I hadn't met Crowley in the way I did. And now that I thought about it, I would be coming back here in 15 years anyway. My stomach churned at the thought of it. I glanced at Crowley, who was grimacing beside me, and tried to imagine how it would work when those fifteen years were up. Would he personally drag my soul down to the worst pits of hell? I had signed my soul over to the king of Hell himself, there was no denying the sacrilege I had committed, so there was really only one place I was going to end up when my time ran out. It might have been the acrid atmosphere or the stabbing light that made my head hurt like a hangover but I was beginning to feel sick, so I was more then ready to retreat to the cabin now.

Moving inside was significantly more mild. The small room had an equally small table affixed to one wall with a lantern on it and two chairs around it. There was a dirty window on one of the walls but not much light came in through it, for that I was grateful, and in the back, propped up by a few crates, was a small cot. I sat down at the table and put my head in my hands as Crowley unloaded some parchments on to it. He always seemed to have some paperwork to attend to, but I suppose that was just one of those downsides to ruling over Hell. I hadn't been prepared for how toxic the atmosphere outside of the castle would be

"I feel sick..." I moaned through my hands, and Crowley's laugh in response was a pretty clear _I-told-you-so_.

"I can't say it gets any easier over time, but you will learn how to handle it better eventually."

"I think I need to lay down."

"That may be for the best. I must admit, I don't really know the full effect of hell's atmosphere on an angel, not many of them come around here, as you can imagine. Castiel being one of the few exceptions, but he's an... odd angel, to say the least."

I moved over to lay down on the cot, trying to keep my eyes closed as much as possible.

"I'm barely an angel." I replied, still feeling weird to be referred to as one.

"You're more an angel now then you've ever been." He began to go through the documents on the table, no doubt grudgingly.

Daisy came to sit down by the cot as I lay down. I was suddenly painfully aware of the swaying of the boat, the sound of sloshing around the edges and the creaking of the boards along with the nauseating smell of tar and river water. It all came together as a horrible wave a queasiness that threatened to rise in my stomach. I got an unpleasant tingling sensation in my mouth that always indicated when I was going to throw up, but right before I was about to get up I paused. A pleasant smell seemed to break through all the others and calmed my stomach. Along with the small was the rhythmic sound of writing and I realized both were coming from Crowley. I peaked at him through my fingers. He was focused on his papers at the small table looking very dignified, almost regal, in his clean black suit sitting in a dingy ship cabin, writing with a shiny fountain pen on old parchment paper. The dichotomy of the scene struck me as profound. It was as if Crowley was trying to be everything that Hell was not. But underneath the smell of his cologne there was still a hint of sulfur.

As I watched him write I couldn't help but think about how strong those same hands had been when he had pinned me to his bed. I looked away. My chest hurt from the thought of it. I didn't want to think about it anymore, in fact I would have been perfectly content to have it wiped from my memory altogether. I pushed it away and instead focused on the thought of finding Eloa, but again I came around to unpleasant thoughts of Crowley. He seemed to think there was no redeeming the other half of me, and would probably never agree to releasing her from her torture. If the stories were true then she never deserved to be imprisoned as she was, and I couldn't stand the thought of letting her rot in a cage if I had a chance to change that. I adamantly believed that she was redeemable, but the problem was in how to convince Crowley of that.

I thought of bringing it up again with him, maybe I could convince him to see it from my viewpoint, but I was certain that would lead to another argument. The last thing I wanted was another argument with him. Maybe it was a side effect of being in hell, maybe it was the fact that Crowley wasn't using human blood anymore, but whatever it was I felt like there was an ever widening rift that had somehow formed between us.

I reached down with one hand and patted Daisy on her back. At least the hell hound and I were getting along. She was dozing peacefully, no doubt completely comfortable in this environment. I felt completely drained at that moment, feeling sick and worried for the future I had little control over, so I made myself relax by focusing on the pleasant sound of Crowley writing and shuffling papers. Soon enough I was nodding off.


	20. Chapter 20

The first thing I realized while waking up was that the air had become perceptibly colder and sharper. I opened my eyes to the dim cabin and immediately noticed that Crowley was no longer in the room working. I sat upright and tried to stretch the stiffness out of my muscles, which caused Daisy to stir from where she was curled on the floor. After she had moved out of the way I stood up and stretched my legs. My head still hurt but not as badly as it had earlier. I shivered and remembered I had a coat and gloves to put on, so I did that quickly and moved to the door, but paused right before leaving. I quickly recalled how harsh the atmosphere outside was and part of me just wanted to stay inside the boat where it was safe. A small voice in the back of my head wondered if I could just point Crowley in the general direction and go back to the relative safety of the castle. Maybe I had started something I wasn't really prepared to handle. Up till this point I had simply been hauled from one place to another by Crowley, but now I was actively dictating where we were going, which also happened to be straight into one of the worst parts of Hell. For the first time since leaving the castle I felt the sinking feeling that I was directly putting us all in danger, but I couldn't even entertain the idea of running away at this point. It wasn't as if we had passed a point of no return, but my pride wouldn't allow me to back down after getting this far, and my consciousness wouldn't allow me to turn my back on the half of me that was still trapped down here. I was the only one who could find Eloa, and Crowley was possibly the only being in hell that could release her, so we both had to be here to pull it off, which meant I couldn't give up right as things were starting to get tough. So whatever Hell was going to throw at me, I would see this through till the end.

I walked out of the cabin with Daisy on my heels. The sky was noticeably darker, covered in looming gray clouds, and the light didn't seem to pierce my eyes as harshly. However, there was now a biting wind that buffeted my face. A shiver rippled through my body as I exhaled a cloud of moisture. Everyone on deck seemed entirely unaffected by the climate. I caught sight of Crowley at the prow of the boat, he was wearing his heavy black overcoat which billowed out behind him dramatically. I quietly walked up beside him and noticed as he slightly flinched when he realized I was there.

"Sleep well?" he asked casually.

"It was... alright. Are we getting close?" I pulled my coat closer around me.

"Yes, in fact, you can see the wall from here." he gestured forward.

I looked up but didn't see anything at first except for the ever growing mountains. However, as I looked longer a shimmering energy started to appear. It seemed to extend indefinitely upwards, fading as it got further away and eventually disappearing into the clouds. Enormous columns of black rock spaced out along the ground into the distance like great fence posts connected by the energy wall. The terrain was also changing as we got closer. The shoreline looked like ash and the river was now a dark gray. We were quickly approaching a small peer and the pace of the oars slapping in the water was beginning to slow.

We came to a stop at the peer and a plank was extended from the ship to the lonely dock by one of the demons. Two of the demons grabbed large packs which they slung on there backs before leaving the boat and the others followed after like large shadows that lumbered along nearly silently. I exited after Crowley and watched as a demon shoved the plank back on the boat. As soon as the ship was unconnected from the peer it started to slowly slip away back towards the the castle which had become a small black stain on the horizon.

"Shouldn't it wait for us?" I asked Crowley as we left the rickety peer.

"No, this isn't a quick run the the grocery store. There's really no telling how long we'll be gone." he replied rather grimly as he lead the group towards the massive wall. Between us and the wall, though, was an enormous boulder protruding from the ground directly in our path. As we got closer I kept thinking that it had a very odd and unnatural shape to it. Before we could get too close we stopped and Crowley suddenly called out towards the strange landmass.

"Well, are you going to get off your ass and let of through or just keep sitting there?"

The entire boulder rumbled and shook and suddenly I realized why the huge rock looked so strange: it was because it took the shape of a person sitting on the ground hunched over. The figure sat up, rolled it's shoulders and opened it's eyes which glowed orange like cracks in cooling lava.

"Oh, Crowley, what a pleasant surprise." the enormous mass replied to Crowley in a voice that rumbled through the ground and was felt more then it was heard, but even still the subtle inflection of sarcasm wasn't missed. The giant rose to it's feet and towered above all of us like the not-so-distant mountains. It began to slowly make it's way towards the wall of energy and Crowley picked up the pace to follow behind.

"I would ask what could possibly be important enough to drag his Highness away from the comfort of the inner circle and out to these desolate lands, but in truth I don't actually care."

"All for the better, I assure you." Crowley responded before looking back my way and noticing my confused expression.

"Surgat is the opener of all locks and thus the gate keeper between the realms of Hell. He keeps everything locked away where it should be." Crowley explained in a lowered voice.

We continued at a brisk trot till we were nearly right next to the wall. It occurred to me that I hadn't considered we would need the help of another demon before we could traverse the different regions of Hell, I had just assumed that Crowley could freely go anywhere he wanted due to him being king. Surgat turned back towards us and extended his enormous hand towards Crowley. A few small objects fell from his palm down towards Crowley who easily swiped them out of the air. He handed me two of the objects and threw one to each of the other demons. They were coins, copper coins the size of half-dollars. They were tarnished green and rough, on one side there were no particular markings but on the other side there was a symbol I had never seen before. It looked like the symbol for the pound sterling only with a few more lines and shapes, but if I looked at it a different way it appeared more like an abstract lock and key.

"Give one to Daisy," Crowley instructed, "and keep your's safely on you at all times. Surgat will let us through the wall but _nothing_ comes back out without one of his tokens."

I handed one of the coins to Daisy who took it in her mouth and swallowed it whole. I supposed that was probably one of the safest ways to carry it. I, however, decided that the inner pocket of my coat would be sufficient.

"Ready?" Crowley said aloud, apparently to all present. Surgat squared off with the wall, his feet braced widely on the ground, his body making a gigantic archway of stone in front of us. The rocks that he was made of began to glow with red runes. The black pillars of the wall also began to glow with the same red runes in response to Surgat as he put his hands together and pushed them through the energy, parting it like a great curtain. A blast of frigid wind came whistling through the gap in the wall nearly lifting me off my feet. Crowley ducked his head against the wind and began to move forward, between the legs of the giant and through the opening in the wall. I, who was holding on tightly to Daisy, followed after Crowley but the freezing wind stung my eyes so badly that I had to close them and let Daisy guide me forward. The sound of wind was deafening in my ears and I was made uncomfortably aware of how little of my surroundings I could perceive. I felt at any moment I might lose my footing and fall but Daisy's confident stride was reassuring.

I was vaguely aware of the texture of the ground beneath me changing to that of snow, and soon enough I felt that I was pulling out of the current of wind. I was barely able to open my eyes again when the sound of the wind changed to a strange sucking noise. Looking back I realized I was now through the wall and Surgat was pulling his hands out, causing our gateway to grow slimmer as the last bits of air attempted to escape. And then it was gone, the wall was solid once more without even an indicator of where the opening had just been. The wind died down slightly and was no longer deafening.

I came up beside Crowley who was waiting for me.

"So I've gotten us through the gate, which way now?" he motioned to the snowy wasteland in front of us. Since crossing through the wall I could now feel a strong pulling from my other half.

_Forward_, it seemed to call, _deeper in_.

I pointed towards the divide between two mountains, confident that the pulling was coming from that direction. Crowley nodded.

"Alright, we move quickly and quietly. If we're extremely lucky we may go unnoticed for a good while." Even though Crowley spoke firmly I could hear an uneasiness in his voice, a tension in his words that put me on edge.

As we began forward we soon came to a forest of dead black trees, their trunks and limbs twisting out and up at unnatural angles. We had no choice but to go through the forest so that's what we did. No one in our party made a noise except for the inevitable sound of our feet trudging through snow. The wind swept through the mangled limbs of the trees causing an agonized howling noise, but it did not stir the trees. Everything stayed completely still. I didn't dare go near any of the trees, but I couldn't help but stare at their ghastly forms. They were each as black as charcoal but the bark was thin and flaky like a river birch tree. Strange formations which were slightly lighter protruded out of the blackened bark. The more I looked, the more I recognized bone structures. I passed by a tree and I could clearly make out the cracked bones of a ribcage showing through the bark. Skeletons were infused into the trees. With that horrifying realization came another: these were not trees at all, but horribly malformed bodies frozen in place, their limbs stretched and twisted past the point of recognition. I averted my eyes in disgust, looking only at the ground.

It seemed to take silent ages for us to make our way through the forest, and with each minute that passed I felt more uncomfortable then before. My skin crawled as if my clothing suddenly contained hundreds of fleas, and I fought the urge to rip off my jacket and shirt to freely claw at my skin. The urge itself was irrational. I knew there were no bugs in my clothes, and to take them off would cause me to freeze to death.

Looking around only at my companions I couldn't tell if any of them were feeling the same sensation. None of the six demons looked uncomfortable, and Daisy kept up a steady stride, though her ears swiveled back and forth regularly, no doubt listening for any sounds of trouble. Crowley was still leading just in front of me, his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his shoulders slightly hunched as he picked his way carefully through the snow. Although I couldn't see his face I could read the tension from his shoulders. In that moment he felt a hundred miles away from me and as cold as the wasteland around us.

We eventually came to an expansive clearing and what appeared to be the end of the forest. Crowley paused to look back at me and without saying a word motioned towards the distance quizzically, as if asking if we were still headed in the right direction. I looked across the flat expanse and I could more clearly see the ground beginning to rise up to create the two mountains which we were aiming to go right between. I nodded at Crowley, who sighed quietly and flicked his fingers forwards as he began to move again.

The wind swirled snow around us as we moved across the open ground and what I thought would be a welcome change to the forest ended up making me feel even worse. We could be spotted from miles off by anything as we moved across this clearing. I looked around, scanning the horizons for any kind of movement which might indicate we had been seen, but there was no other movement besides the windswept snow. As we advanced I noticed the ground beneath us had turned to ice because my feet were having a difficult time getting traction. This large opening must have been a frozen lake.

We kept walking for what seemed like hours, the forest slowly receding behind us but the rocky slopes on the other side never seeming to get any closer. A particularly heavy gust of wind rippled across the ice of the lake, kicking up clouds of snow in it's wake. I braced myself but it hit me harder then I had expected and suddenly my feet lost traction and slipped out from under me. I hit the ice hard and spun away from Daisy on my back. I groaned in pain and clutched at my elbow which had hit the ice hard enough to chip the surface. I rolled onto my stomach and pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. To my horror as I looked down into the ice bellow me I saw a decrepit face staring back at me, it's sunken and shriveled eyes locked with mine. I cried out in shock and backed away quickly, but as I slid across the surface my legs swept aside the loose snow to reveal the ice beneath and the people trapped within the ice, each one frozen in place and yet their eyes followed my movements. There were more bodies then I could count, all just beneath the surface, and who knew how many more in the depths of the lake.

_Crack!_

My blood ran cold as the surface of the lake began to split open from where my elbow had hit. I was frozen in terror, frozen like the bodies beneath me, unable to move as the ice around me began to give way...


	21. Chapter 21

I clutched my throbbing arm as I tried to push myself away from the edge of the breaking ice. Cracks in the surface splintered out with horrifying speed as shriveled gray hands broke through the ice in the weakest spots. The surface I was laying on began to tip as it broke off from the rest of the ice, causing one edge to dip into the frigged water. Skeletal hands emerged to reach towards me, finger bones breaking through the thin decaying flesh of their hands as they clawed at me, trying to drag the ice under the water and me with it. I was quickly losing traction as the slab tilted further into the water, and I started to slide towards the grasping hands. Right before my boots could hit the water I was gripped and pulled backwards with a gust of wind that kicked up an eye-stinging flurry of snow. The black garbed arms that had securely wrapped around my waist and the familiar accompanying smell left no doubt that the one who had grabbed me was Crowley. He pulled me onto my feet, making sure I was stable before letting go.

"Stay back." He told me firmly as he placed himself between me and the hole in the ice that continued to grow larger by the second. A deep crack raced across the surface straight towards me and right between Crowley's feet. We both leaped aside simultaneously, and just in time to avoid the ice as it burst upwards. A huge hand made from the twisted, convulsing forms of the corpses reached through the broken ice and slapped down towards me, but narrowly missed. I struggled to keep my balance on the ice as I tried to get further away, but the hand began to drag itself out of the water revealing a larger form that had yet to breach the surface. No matter which way I moved the cracks in the ice followed me, and it was becoming very clear that I was the main target of these creatures.

"Well, what did I bring you for?" Crowley snapped at the six demons who were standing as if just waiting for instructions. At Crowley's word they leaped into action, each brandishing a weapon of some sort and began hacking at the corpses that were making their way out of the water. Two of the bigger demons came over to flank Crowley.

"Push it back!" He ordered, referring to the large grasping hand still straining to reach me. The demons began slicing away at the hand but they only seemed to be aggravating it. With each chop a piece of corpse would be cut loose but almost as quickly a new piece would take its place. There seemed to be no end to the bodies, they probably filled this whole lake. Crowley slowly backed away, glancing back towards the far shore, probably trying to judge how far we had yet to go until relative safety. Daisy had appeared by my legs, growling menacingly and snapping at any corpses that had managed to crawl out of the lake. I grabbed my knife from my waist and held it at the ready even though one of my arms felt almost completely numb. The demons attempted to drive the creatures back under the ice but no headway was being made, in fact, we were slowly getting pushed back as more ice broke up allowing more corpses through.

Crowley, becoming visibly more agitated, rolled his shoulders and finally stepped in mumbling something under his breath. He squared off sideways and threw his hand forward and with a snap of his fingers sent a wave of energy forward that obliterated the corpses in its path with brutal efficiency. For a moment the surface was cleared as bits of bodies splashed back into the water, and I held my breath in anticipation. Now that nothing was pushing at the surface anymore the ice was quickly starting to solidify, and given enough time the holes would close back up, trapping the bodies once again under the water.

I was about to let out a sigh of relief when I began to hear a strange gurgling noise coming from bellow the surface. There was still a sizable hole that hadn't yet had time to freeze over, and in the middle I could see something was bubbling under the water. Crowley was the first to move as he quickly closed the distance to me.

"Get on Daisy's back, _now_!" he shouted as he took off his overcoat and threw it over the protruding bones of Daisy's spine. I put away my knife and scrambled on as Daisy immediately dug her claws into the ice and started racing for the shoreline. The two demons that had flanked Crowley were now on either side of us, both keeping up with surprising swiftness. I looked back just in time to catch a glimpse of Crowley signaling to the four other demons who began to run outwards in different directions.

With geyser like force an enormous fist burst up through the hole in the lake, sending chunks of ice and freezing water flying in all directions. The arm extended high into the air above our heads, its claw like fingers opening up before beginning to fall straight towards me. Daisy must have known it was coming because she darted to the side just in time to avoid the arm as it crashed down between us and one of the demons. Almost as soon as it had hit the ice it was sweeping sideways trying to grab us before we could outrun its reach. The enormous open palm swatted at us and I thought for a moment we were dead for sure, but with a tremendous upwards heave that made my stomach drop Daisy leaped over the hand. It flew by underneath us and instead snatched one of the demons. With a sickening pop the hand clenched the demon tightly enough to cause their body to burst.

Daisy landed roughly back on the ground nearly throwing me off over her head, but I managed to hold on and keep myself upright. Without breaking stride she kept on running, clearing the reach of the monster. Its hand now dripped with black ichor as it grasped at the ice once more, digging its fingers in, beginning to drag itself out of the water as another arm reached out to help. The broken ice buckled under its weight as it dragged more of its mass upwards. It was hard to keep an eye on things when Daisy beat forward, but I could see these huge arms made out of conjoined bodies were attached to an oblong mass that pulsated unnervingly. It was nearly able to haul itself out of the water towards me. Both arms now slammed down at me, smashing through the ice which caused huge sheets to be broken up. Daisy struggled to keep her footing as the ground bellow us was suddenly moving as if we were standing on a waterbed. The line of breakage that the arms caused encircled us, completely cutting us off from the shore. The creature, having destroyed the integrity of the ice, fell back down under the water causing a huge wave to go rolling outwards. That wave of freezing water came crashing towards us with frightening speed and I could feel as the ice we stood on was picked up by it.

I clutched Daisy as tightly as I could but as the wave sent us flying I lost my grip. I was sent head-over-heels as the water tossed me like a ragdoll, soaking into my clothes, blinding me, forcing its way into my nose and mouth. I could tell the second I fell down through the surface of the lake as all warmth was immediately sapped from my body. For a moment I was suspended motionless in the water. I opened my eyes as I held my breath and could see with astonishing clarity the hundreds of thousands of bodies that resided in the lake. Instinct kicked in as my arms and legs scrambled to take me back to the surface, but as I reached the top of the water I was unable to break through. It was as if I had fallen through a one way mirror, able to see and pass through into the depths of the lake but unable to get back out. I pounded my fists upwards trying to break through, feeling the oxygen seep out of my lungs as my heart raced, but my fists made no impact.

I tried not to panic but I knew I had to think of a way out quickly. The corpses had sensed my presence in the water and were starting to swarm me, the closest ones grabbed my feet in an attempt to drag me deeper. I kicked frantically because my life depended on it, pushing the palms of my hands against the surface of the water. There was a warmth in my chest that I knew was drawing these creatures to me, like moths to a flame, and I would use that to my advantage. Accessing the angelic essence at my core caused heat to radiate outwards, warming the water but also lighting me up like a beacon as my body exuded a visible brightness. I could feel the wings on my back slowly extending, pushing corpses back with a blinding light that was quickly beginning to cause the water to boil.

With one big heave I propelled myself upwards and through the surface of the water. I gasped for air as I rolled away from the open water, scrambling to get back on my feet. I was on a large chunk of ice that was being tossed around by the waves but I couldn't see much else and I had completely lost track of where Crowley and the other demons were.

I reoriented myself towards the far shore and began carefully moving in that direction, jumping from one piece of floating ice to another. I hadn't gotten very far when I heard a loud bark and looked around to see Daisy had managed to stay above the water and was making her way towards me. With a flash, Crowley was beside me out of breath with his suit jacket torn.

"Crow–" I began to speak but was cut off as he whistled so loudly it must have reached across the entire lake. Daisy stopped making her way towards us and began to run for the shore. Crowley then scooped me up and began running across the ice with inhuman haste until we were back on solid ice. He skidded to a halt and quickly put me back down again.

"Keep going." he huffed as he turned back to the lake where an enormous body was beginning to rise out of the water once more, this time bigger and more powerful then before. Even though I knew I should follow Daisy the rest of the way to the shore I couldn't tear my eyes off of Crowley's back. A howling wind was being whipped up all across the lake as an enormous amount of energy was being channeled through him. He extended his arms and etchings appeared in the ice that raced outwards in two arcs while two lines extended in front of him in a V shape. I saw in the distance the four other demons were spaced out in a wide circle around the lake and realized these etchings that Crowley was making were all connecting to create a pentagram that relied on the other demons to complete the five points of the star.

Demons using a devil's trap, certainly a scene I had never seen the likes of before.

Crowley yelled out in a language I had never heard before and the lines of the devil's trap lit up with green fire. The monster roared out and tried to swipe at Crowley, but he brought his hands together with a deafening thunderclap. Before it could even get close to us everything inside the trap was encased in a thick layer of ice and all was still once more. The green flames quickly went out as Crowley's energy sealed the trap.

He let his arms fall loosely to his sides and exhaled heavily, his warm breath visible in the cold air. He tilted shakily as he started to turn around and I quickly stepped in and took his arm over my shoulders to steady him. We began to walk slowly and quietly to the shore line where Daisy waited for us. The four other demons that had survived the attack made there way after us. I could feel blood from Crowley's arm soak into my clothes and realized that I was no longer hurt or wet. I must have healed myself when I used that burst of energy to get through the ice. We finally all regrouped at the shore and Crowley took stock of our situation.

I was shaking from the cold and utterly exhausted but otherwise fine. Daisy looked unscathed as well. Some of the demons had cuts and gashes on them that oozed a black liquid, but they continued to stand silently as if they were totally unharmed. Crowley looked the worst, I had no idea how he got injured but his arm wasn't looking so great. In addition, his skin had taken on an ashen color with visible dark circles under his eyes.

"Are you alright?" I asked softly.

"I'm just drained," he sighed, "and exerting so much power through this body weakens it considerably."

"We should stop for a little while and catch our breath."

"Agreed, but not here, further in"

We left the frozen lake behind us and continued into a desolate region that was populated only by large boulders and jutting rocks. We made our way into a crevasse that sheltered us from the wind and gave us a defensible area to set up camp for a little while. Two demons were still wearing large packs on their back which they now took off to extract the supplies for a tent. Crowley grabbed a blanket and some first aid supplies from one of the packs and moved over to hand the stuff to me. I pulled the blanket around me and we both sat down against one of the rock walls. He took his suit jacket off and rolled up his torn sleeve as I got a needle and thread ready to stitch him up. Before I started I paused.

"I could probably just heal you, you know." I stated.

"You could, but it wouldn't make any sense to waste your energy on it. The cut is insignificant, I just need it to stop bleeding everywhere." his reasoning made sense, so I started to work on his arm.

"I'm sorry." I said after working for a little while in silence.

"Don't be, something was bound to happen on that lake, too many hungry souls."

"Except it was me they were after and it was my fault they were even able to get out in the first place."

"And it was my fault I didn't put an end to it before it got out of hand, so look, there's plenty of blame to go around! What we need to focus on now finding Eloa's cage and getting what I came here for."

"Wait, what _you_ came here for?" I asked him as I started to wrap his arm. He paused for a moment before looking at me.

"Were you under the assumption I would come all the way out here into this hell hole just so you could visit a cage and then leave again?"

"What do you think you'll gain from this?" I asked as I began to feel increasingly uneasy.

"Whatever that angel has to offer. She's ancient and undoubtedly powerful, she could be an invaluable ally for hell."

"She's an _angel_, do you seriously think she's just going to side with a bunch of demons?"

"The bloody founder of Hell is an angel." he said with an exasperated tone, clearly not in the mood to argue about this. I finished securing the bandage around his arm and stood up, frustrated with Crowley for refusing to see the possibility of a positive outcome for Eloa.

The demons had erected a decent sized tent which Crowley motioned me into. Inside was almost warm and cut out the wind nearly entirely. It was dark at first because we didn't have anything to light the space, but my eyes quickly adjusted to the low light. There was only a blanket covering the ground but it was comfortable enough to sleep on.

"Alright, well I have to rest for a short while, I suggest to do the same." Crowley said as he stretched out on the ground with one arm behind his head and the other over his eyes. I sat down, making sure there was plenty of room between us, but I didn't feel the need to rest. I listened to Crowley's breathing and the faint howling of the wind outside and I thought about what he had told me. I was naive to think Crowley wouldn't have his own agenda in coming out here, but to want to use Eloa as a tool, a weapon for Hell's purposes? I couldn't let that happen.

I waited, listening to make sure Crowley was asleep, before I crept to the opening of the tent. I could feel the other half of me calling out, strongly pulling me towards her. I was very close, but I had to go the rest of the way alone now, I couldn't risk Crowley getting to her.

* * *

**A/N: I wanted to address a question from the comments asking about Crowley's apparent lack of need for Ely's blood. He did stop using her blood but it's not necessarily because he doesn't want the blood anymore. There's a very good reason he stopped using Ely's which I will explain in a few chapters, but I just wanted to assure you all that I didn't just leave a huge plot hole in the story XD **

**Thank you for your continued support of this story!**


End file.
